EU protein strategy
- Common Agricultural Policy
- Deforestation
- Sustainability/Due diligence
- Sustainable food systems
Summary
The European Parliament’s Agriculture Committee has set out its ideas for increasing protein production. It encourages the European Commission to put forward an ambitious new protein strategy. This is expected to be published in early 2024.
European Parliament presents its vision for a new EU protein strategy
Update
The European Parliament’s Agriculture Committee has set out its ideas for increasing protein production. It encourages the European Commission to put forward an ambitious new protein strategy. This is expected to be published in early 2024.
Background
There is a high demand for vegetable protein from the EU livestock sector. This demand cannot be met by EU production. So the EU is critically dependent on imports of plant-based proteins for animal feed, especially soybeans from Argentina, Brazil, and the USA.
Russia's invasion of Ukraine has increased the risk of price volatility and trade disruptions. As a result of supply disruptions, feed costs have risen, contributing to high levels of food inflation in the EU. There are also concerns that EU demand for protein crops is a key driver of deforestation, land degradation, and biodiversity loss in non-EU countries.
In November 2018 the Commission published a report that made policy recommendations to strengthen the development of EU-grown plant proteins, but did not lay out a comprehensive protein strategy (European Commission 2018).
The 2020 Farm to Fork strategy made further commitments to fostering EU-grown plant proteins, including alternative feed materials, but did not put in place a protein plan.
In spring 2022, pressure from the European Parliament and EU Member States led the Commission to announce future work on a protein strategy (Euractiv 2022).
Impacted Products
Protein crops, seaweed, insects
What is changing?
In September 2023, the European Parliament’s Agriculture Committee set out its ideas on what the EU should do to stimulate domestic production of proteins. The Parliament hopes to shape the European Commission’s thinking on a new EU strategy, expected in early 2024.
Reducing EU dependency on imported proteins broadly requires:
- increasing EU production of plant-based proteins
- diversifying the available protein sources for food and feed (including microbial, insect, and seaweed proteins)
- greater efficiency and circularity in the way food is produced and consumed.
The Parliament proposes a number of concrete policy actions to stimulate EU plant-based protein production and enable European protein producers to become more competitive.
- A feed additives regulation that promotes innovation (as feed additives are important for reducing emissions and improving protein consumption).
- Simpler novel food legislation that will allow innovative products to come to the market more quickly.
- Allowing more types of biodegradable waste to be used as feed.
- Legislation on biofuels that allows for long-term stable production (to give producers of protein-rich crops greater confidence of gaining income from biowaste).
- Adoption of a regulation on new genomic techniques.
- New carbon removal certification to stimulate the production of protein-rich crops with a carbon-reducing effect.
- Common Agricultural Policy rules that provide the stability and flexibility needed to incentivise the production of protein-rich crops.
- Front-of-pack labelling that compares the carbon footprint of food and feed.
- Development of an EU food protein balance sheet.
- Rules on purchases by public bodies (“public procurement”) that will provide incentives for more sustainable protein production and consumption.
- Funding of research and development into plant-based and alternative proteins.
Why?
The European Parliament highlights that the EU produces only 77% of the feed protein used within the Union. And only 29% of the high-protein feedstock needed to balance animal feed originates from the EU. The Parliament believes that the EU is too dependent on imports of proteins. So there is an urgent need to increase EU protein production through concrete policy actions.
Timeline
The European Parliament is due to vote on the Agriculture Committee’s draft report in mid-October 2023.
The European Commission is expected to publish a review of its protein policy in early 2024.
What are the major implications for exporting countries?
Challenges
- Increased EU self-sufficiency in high-protein crops potentially reduces demand for imports.
Opportunities
- Diversified protein sources for food and feed can incentivise alternative protein supply chains – for instance, insects and seaweed – and open up new markets for non-EU countries with a competitive advantage in producing these proteins.
- Growing EU consumer demand for green proteins can boost opportunities for sustainable actors, including for social and economic empowerment of producers in sustainable supply chains and food systems.
- Reduced imports of plant-based protein will reinforce existing initiatives to reduce deforestation in non-EU countries.
Recommended Actions
Countries exporting plant-based proteins to the EU should consider:
- potential impacts of increased EU protein self-sufficiency on their exports of plant-based proteins for animal feed
- opportunities and potential competitive advantage of investing in alternative sustainable supply chains tapping into the growing EU market for green proteins.
Resources
European Commission (2018) Report on the development of plant proteins in the European Union.
Euractiv (2022) EU-wide protein strategy on the cards as Commission changes its tune. Euractiv, 5 April.
Sources
European Parliament (2023) Draft Report: European Protein Strategy. Committee on Agriculture and Rural Development.
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European Parliament presents its vision for a new EU protein strategy
Draft European Parliament Report: European Protein Strategy
What is changing and why?
The European Parliament wants the European Commission to urgently write a new protein strategy so that the EU does not have to rely on importing proteins that are particularly needed to feed animals.
The Parliament wants the strategy to include:
- introducing rules that make it easier to bring new feed additives to the market
- allowing more sorts of biodegradable waste to be used as feed
- making sure that protein producers can earn money from using biowaste in energy production
- a certification scheme that allows producers to show how protein crops help to reduce carbon
- making sure that agricultural policy and rules on how public bodies buy food will help farmers who produce protein-rich crops
- new food labelling that shows how much carbon has been produced when growing and making food and feed
- funding research to find new ways to make plant-based protein and other kinds of protein.
Actions
Non-EU countries that want to sell plant-based proteins to the EU should:
- keep a close eye on the new EU protein strategy to understand how it might affect their trade
- think about the benefits of investing in eco-friendly supply chains to meet the demand for green proteins in the EU market.
Timeline
The European Parliament will finalise its suggestions in October 2023. The Commission plans to release its new protein strategy at the beginning of 2024.
Disclaimer: Under no circumstances shall COLEAD be liable for any loss, damage, liability or expense incurred or suffered that is claimed to have resulted from the use of information available on this website or any link to external sites. The use of the website is at the user’s sole risk and responsibility. This information platform was created and maintained with the financial support of the European Union. Its contents do not, however, reflect the views of the European Union.