Fresh concerns have been voiced that Irish farmers who sell cattle from January 1, 2025, could be required to identify the locations where these animals grazed and could also be expected to provide declarations that these cattle were not grazed on deforested lands.
New legislation that would impact on selling cattle is scheduled to be introduced for Irish farmers – and generally for all farmers across the European Union – under the European Union Deforestation Regulation (EUDR).
The terms of the new regulation will also be imposed on all food-related products being imported into the EU. The EUDR will apply for everything from to coffee beans to soya and south American beef being imported into the EU.
Under the EUDR, which is set to come into effect on December 30, 2024, all soya being imported to the EU from January 1, 2025 will be required to be certified as not grown on lands that have been deforested.
Irish farmers
Speaking to Agriland today (Wednesday, September 11) the Irish Farmers’ Association’s (IFA) Livestock Committee chair, Declan Hanrahan, was critical of the impending new legislation.
He said: “The proposed EUDR is missing its key point and the purpose of its development in the first place.
“The reasoning behind the EU putting this legislation in place was to ensure the rainforests in South America were not being destroyed to create grazing grounds for beef cattle that would be sold into EU markets undermining the markets for EU farmers and doing untold damage to the environment.”
The IFA livestock chair also added: “The proposed direction which is meeting very strong opposition from EU member states is putting unnecessary and, to a large extent, unworkable obligations on farmers in Ireland and other EU states requiring all farmers who sell animals to identify the locations where these animals grazed and provide declarations that they were were not on deforested lands is not practical, reasonable or acceptable.
“The current time frame for implementation on January 1 next year is not credible, there are significant and fundamental changes required to its regulation including the provision of a simplified process to verify compliance with the regulation for all animals in Ireland”.
Hanrahan said that deforestation is not an issue in Ireland and “all animals produced must be accepted as compliant”.
“There is no way the minister can allow this to progress until the fundamental issues are resolved.”
“As it’s currently written, all live animals sold within the country would have to be accompanied by a geo-location of where they grazed certifying the lands were not deforested,” according to the livestock chair.
Soya imports
Industry sources have also told Agriland that there is currently a lot of uncertainty related to forward buying soya from January 1, 2025.
Other sources from the Irish feed industry have told Agriland that most Irish soya is currently sourced from countries such as Argentina and North America where deforestation is not an issue.
But the new certification rules are expected to add approximately €30/t to the price of soya from January and €60/t from April 1.
Feed industry sources expect the new rules will likely have a knock on effect on the price of all proteins.
The changes in relation to soya imports is not expected to have a significant impact on ruminant livestock production systems but could have a major impact on Irish pig and poultry production.