The vision outlines the role of the feed industry as a knowledge-driven, highly-skilled and reliable partner to a sustainable, competitive E.U. livestock sector. FEFAC will present the vision’s key pillars on feed safety, animal nutrition and sustainable feed production at the 1st FEFAC-FEFANA joint conference “Innovation in Animal Nutrition” on June 9 in Brussels, Belgium.
FEFAC, as well as other partners in the Agri-Food Chain Coalition, call on E.U. policy makers to adapt the regulatory framework to allow the feed and food chain to boost innovation efforts in order to tackle societal challenges, including climate change, the growing demand for food-feed safety and animal health and welfare.
The council also re-elected Ruud Tijssens as FEFAC president, until June 2017. He will continue to work with the Praesidium members Anton Einberger (DVT, Germany), Cristina de Sousa (IACA, Portugal), Tony Bell (AIC, U.K.), Witold Obidzinski (IZP, Poland) and Jesper Pagh (DAKOFO, Denmark), whose mandates have also been extended by one year.
Jean-Michel Boussit, newly elected president of EUROFAC, will replace Alain Guillaume (SNIA) in the FEFAC Praesidium beginning June 1. EUROFAC, which represents 85% of the French compound feed and premix industry, will take over the FEFAC membership from SNIA on the same date.
Alain Guillaume and Jaime Piçarre were also elected honorary members. Guillaume was praised for his devotion to the compound feed industry at both French and European level, as well as for his visionary qualities, which most notably led to the establishment of EUROFAC in March. Guillaume also played a decisive role in the establishment of Duralim, the platform supporting the responsible sourcing of feed materials for the French feed industry. His role as president of SNIA and member of the FEFAC Praesidium have strongly contributed to the positioning of the feed industry as a credible and reliable partner for the livestock sector and a respectable interlocutor towards national and European Institutions.
Piçarra (IACA) was commended for his personal contribution to the establishment of the “technical solution” approach for feed grain imports in the E.U. GM policy. His outstanding leadership at the highest E.U. decision-maker level was considered as a crucial element in the regulatory process. Piçarra’s profound knowledge of agricultural markets and E.U. regulatory systems, combined with exceptional diplomatic skills and human qualities, allowed him to excel in defending FEFAC’s positions at numerous E.U. and international stakeholder meeting, such as the DG AGRI Advisory Groups on Agricultural Markets & CAP reform and the GMCC conferences on biotechnology.
Since FEFAC was founded as a federation in 1959, the title honorary member has been awarded to the following persons: Hubert Marek, Marcel van Belle, Carl Brenninkmeyer, André Namur, Franz-Josef Juchem, Giordano Veronesi, Helen Raine and Marek Kumprecht.
