The Courier & Advertiser (Fife Edition)
Products sold as milk must come from animal inputs
A European Court ruling has made clear that products sold as milk, butter, cheese, yoghurt or cream must come from animal inputs and not from plants. This ruling will apply across the EU.
The case was brought by an organisation that campaigns against unfair competition against a German company selling vegetarian and vegan products, including cheese.
The court ruling was that ‘dairy’ terms could only be used on products made from milk–and its definition of milk was that it came from an animal.
Supermarkets will now have to make clear that alternatives are plant proteins or spreads.
This is being seen as a significant victory for the dairy industry and it may also apply to vegetarian products sold with‘ meat’ references, but that has yet to be tested. nA group of EU member states have come together to support a so-called European soy declaration. This was developed by Germany and Hungary and has the support of a significant number of member states.
The document is largely aspirational, in that it seeks to reduce the EU’s traditional reliance on protein imports for livestock feeds, with South America the biggest source.
The EU imports around 36 million tonnes of soya, of which around a third goes to livestock feeds. It produces well below a million tonnes of protein crops across all 28 member states.
The aim of the declaration is to encourage legume crops to secure a home-produced supply of non-GM protein.
After Brexit the UK will be able to decide its own trade arrangements, but failure to support the soy declaration could be used to restrict imports to the EU-27.
The EU farm commissioner, Phil Hogan, has delivered an upbeat assessment of the state of agricultural markets in general and dairy markets in particular.
Hogan told farm ministers that milk prices in April were 21% higher than the same month last year.
He said the current EU average of 33 cents a litre had only been topped three times – in 2008, 2013 and 2014 which, he said, was down to better global markets and a reduction in EU production.
Beef markets have also improved in early 2017, while pig prices are good, albeit after two years of very low returns.
Concern continues however about the ticking time-bomb of more than 350,000 tonnes of skim milk powder in store, which the commission is reluctant to sell because it could undermine global market recovery.