Temporary reprieve for Red Tractor biofuel label
A temporary reprieve for hard-pressed grain growers in England – who had seen all movement of grain and oilseed crops destined for biofuel outlets suspended – looked to be on the cards last night.
Following the EU’S de-listing of the Red Tractor (RT) assurance scheme’s ability to validate such crops as sustainable under the Renewable Energy Directive on 6 August, growers relying in the scheme to see their crops qualify had been left in the lurch, unable to deliver their grain.
However a last-minute deal appeared to have been thrashed out last night which would see the Red Tractor scheme’s validation given a three month temporary reprieve – meaning that deliveries to biofuel plants could once again begin and allowing on-farm backlogs to be cleared.
Earlier in the day, though, anger among the thousands of English arable farmers who had been unable to move their grain to biofuel plants and other outlets due to the hitch boiled over.
And while the English NFU had pointed the finger of blame at Brussels for taking too long to give the Red Tractor certification group the all-clear, growers were less than happy with the RTS track record.
With an estimated 40 per cent of the UK’S oilseed rape crop destined for use in biodiesel and several million tonnes of wheat going into bioethanol production, the lock-down on deliveries had caused severe disruption for many growers.
The requirement for the sustainability of biuofuels production to be verified was introduced by brussels to ensure that the growing of such crops did not have negative environmental consequences – and the checks carried out by farm assurance schemes was adopted as the method of proving compliance.
But whether the glitch was due to the assurance body leaving it until too late to apply for a renewal of its authorisation or to the inordinately long time which the European Commission is taking to reach a decision, grain which had been due to be moved in recent weeks to biofuel plants could not be delivered.
“RT has handled this very badly. Members should have been made aware of this upcoming issue long before the deadline,” said one irate producer.
“It is a disgrace that there has still been no contact from them on this. If the application for an extension of the derogation had been lodged in good time but had not been approved then a plan B should have been put in place.”
Admitting yesterday that both wheat and oilseed rape growers had been suffering due to deliveries being disrupted and that producers were being forced to find extra storage, the English NFU combinable crops board chairman Mike Hambly struck out at the European Commission.
He said that it was critical for farmers and the supply chain that the commission published its decisions on either a temporary solution or full approval, adding that the union was confident the commission had no substantive reason to cause further delay: “To our knowledge, there are no questions about the scheme outstanding.”
He said that Red Tractor had been working to have the scheme re-registered with the commission since the beginning of the year, in order to get full approval for Red Tractor crops.
However, speaking after the latest development, a spokesman for the NFU welcomed the temporary arrangement which would allow deliveries to restart and which would provide time for the issue to be properly resolved.
Scottish growers working through the SQC assurance scheme were reassured earlier in the week that their crops remained fully qualified for use in the biofuels industry.
bhenderson@farming.co.uk