Photo courtesy of FEFAC.
The event was held June 8-9 in Cordoba, Spain, and attracted 320 delegates.
“We must foster a smart and resilient agricultural sector by supporting viable farm incomes, increasing competitiveness and encouraging greater use of risk management tools while improving farmers’ position in the food chain,” Hogan said. “We need to enhance environmental sustainability and climate resilience.”
Quoting the FEFAC Vision 2030 paper, Hogan highlighted the importance of upholding consistency at the E.U. level between the legal frameworks dealing with CAP, climate change and the circular economy, which would allow for the UN Sustainable Development Goals and the objectives of the CAP to be achieved in conjunction.
In a panel debate with newly elected FEFAC President Nick Major, Hogan announced his intention to “bring forward work on a European Protein Strategy” as part of future CAP reform. Major called for creating a win-win scenario for the E.U. feed and livestock sector as laid down in the FEFAC position on the CAP post 2020.
Copa-Cogeca Secretary General Pekka Pesonen stressed the need for the E.U. feed and food chain to promote E.U. produced food both on global and internal markets. President of the Spanish Feed Industry Federation (CESFAC) called for greater investment in research and innovation in animal nutrition precision feeding.
Spanish Minister for Agriculture Isabel Garcia Tejerina and Portuguese Secretary of State for Agriculture & Food Luís Medeiros Vieira stressed the supporting role of the feed industry to increase circular economies at livestock farms. The Congress also included sessions on the contribution of animal nutrition science in the fight against anti-microbial resistance (AMR), the use of social media to improve the image of the livestock sector, the role of compound feed production as drivers of resource efficiency in the food chain and the work progress being made on the sourcing of sustainable raw materials.
