At the meeting held in Sao Paulo on 21 August 2014, Messrs Julio Neves, President of Feed Latina and Ruud Tijssens, FEFAC President, stressed the importance of closer co-operation on feed safety, regulatory coherence and sustainable development of feed and livestock production systems to the benefit of their members and chain partners.
The meeting was facilitated and attended by Mario Cutait, IFIF Chairman, Robert Betancourt, President of Sindiraçoes (Brazilian feed industry association), Ariovaldo Zani, CEO Sindirações, both Feedlatina board members, and FEFAC Secretary General, Alexander Döring.
Julio Neves and Ruud Tijssens agreed that moving towards closer cooperation of the leading regional feed industry associations in the crucial areas of feed safety, regulatory co-operation and sustainable developments will generate direct synergies and benefits to its members and feed chain partners.
They noted that “feed manufacturers in Europe and Latin America face the same challenges and market expectations when providing safe, affordable and sustainable feed products to their customers and the final consumer of livestock products.
Neves pointed to the proactive partnership between Latin American feed associations, which account for 130 million tonnes of annual feed production, who just started a WTO funded project co-operation to harmonise feed regulatory frameworks in Latin America. This project could also bring direct benefit to European feed companies seeking better market access in Latin America.
Tijssens highlighted the new FEFAC feed safety management process and the launch of the global Feed LCA database and calculation tool, jointly developed with AFIA, the American Feed Industry Association. Direct project co-operation with FeedLatina would strengthen the credibility and robustness of both projects, given the important position of the Latin American feed industry as exporter of key feed ingredients and livestock products.