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Will Poland prohibit genetic engineering in feed?
As long ago as 2006, the Polish government formalised the prohibition on GMOs in feed in its Feed Act. The deadline for this has been repeatedly pushed back, most recently in 2018. Since then an exception has been made for the use of GM soy in the feed trough until the end of 2020. This meant that the prohibition on genetically modified feed would come into effect on 1 January 2021.
Top agrar online reported that the chambers of commerce for dealers, grain processors and feed producers, in an open letter to Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki, called for the prohibition to be postponed once again. They made the case that in the absence of adequate alternatives, a ban on transgenic plants in feed would lead to steep increases in feed costs, which would have to be borne by Polish livestock owners and the downstream sectors. In fact, the Polish government has for years promoted the cultivation of legumes and the wider use of rapeseed/canola meal in compound feed. However, even after the planned prohibition was last postponed in 2018, Poland continued to import more than two million tons of soy meal.
Nevertheless, a prohibition on the import of GMOs could also be an opportunity. Poland has had a national ‘Ohne Gentechnik’ label since 2020 and is thus well positioned for the steadily increasing European market for GMO-free foods of animal origin. This concerns primarily poultry, of which Poland is the largest producer in the EU. In the case of pigs, the Polish feed industry fears increased imports of cheap meat from Denmark or Germany produced using GMO feed.
However, experiments by the State Institution for Agriculture and Horticulture of Saxony-Anhalt have shown that the fattening of pigs without any soy at all is possible, the better value obtained from the feed making up for the higher cost.
The question is whether the EU Commission would accept a national prohibition on feed that is approved EU-wide without a fight. After all, this constitutes an interference with the single market.
In the course of the discussion on national prohibitions on the cultivation of GMOs in 2015 proposals to enable Member States to prohibit the use even of approved GMOs were rejected. Poland would be the first Member State to assume this right, and others could follow. As yet, there have been no known statements by EU committees.
top agrar online: Poland: imports of GMO soy to end by 2021 (09.07.2018)
VLOG: Pigs can be fed well without genetic engineering (12.11.2020)
VLOG: Poland introduces its own ‘Ohne Gentechnik’ label (19.08.2019)