Ferré & Consulting Blog (English Version)

A European Commission initiative to release 500,000 tonnes of out of quota sugar onto the EU market has been backed by member states in the EU sugar management committee today.

In addition, the delegates backed a move to open an import quota for 300,000 tonnes of raw or refined sugar at zero duty in early March.

The Commission stressed that the measures are in response to the current exceptional market circumstances which see the EU sugar market in deficit and world market prices above average EU levels.

Rapidly rising world sugar prices and bad weather, speculative hedging on supplies and stockpiling across the world have combined to leave end user manufacturers in bakery, confectionery and the wider food industry worrying about sugar supply problems.

In Europe, sugar shortages in recent months have been enhanced by the movement of world prices, which have risen above the bloc’s set prices of €404.00 a tonne for white sugar and €335.20 a tonne for raw sugar.

Meanwhile, food and drink trade representatives have been lobbying the European regulator since June 2010, pressing for the introduction of such measures to alleviate supply pressures.

The Commission said that licences for the “out of quota” sugar will be released based on weekly applications, but with a 500 €/t penalty applicable if the volumes are not filled. The import quota, open to all third countries will be managed on a monthly basis, it continued.

According to the statement this morning, the sugar committee will continue to monitorthe EU supply situation and will propose additional import quotas later in the marketing year, if appropriate.

Speaking after the management committee vote, Dacian Ciolo, Commissioner for Agriculture and Rural Development, stated: “In a context of high world prices and tight supplies, these measures will help to ease the situation by making more sugar available on the EU market.

This move builds on my commitment of October 2010 to take exceptional measures should the market situation make them necessary.”

Ingredients EU, sugar

EU ministers have reached agreement on a range of proposals to be included in a draft regulation on food labelling for the region.

As expected, decision-makers from the 27 members of the European Union today approved the key strands of the legislation that had been hammered out by national negotiators last week.

The main elements given the green light at the Council include:

• Mandatory nutrition labelling that displays the energy value and the quantities of some nutrients – such as fat, saturates, carbohydrates, protein, sugars and salt;

• As a general principle, the energy value and the amounts of these nutrients would have to be expressed per 100g or per 100ml, but could also be indicated as a percentage of reference intakes;

• Food business operators should be allowed to use other systems as long as they do not mislead consumers;

• All elements of the nutrition declaration should appear together in the same field of vision but some elements may be repeated on the “front of pack”;

• Country of origin labelling, compulsory for beef, should be extended to pork, lamb and chicken;

• The European Commission should also submit a report examining the possible extension of the compulsory labelling of the country of origin to further products – such as milk, milk used as an ingredient, meat used as an ingredient, unprocessed foods, single ingredient products, ingredients that represent more than 50% of a food – within three years of the act’s implementation;

• An exemption for certain alcoholic beverages (such as wines, products derived from aromatized wines, mead, beer, spirits, but not alcopops) from nutrition labelling rules as well as from the indication of the list of ingredients. This should be reviewed within five years;

Once a formal version of the draft regulation has been agreed by the Council, the measure will go to the European Parliament for a second reading.

packaging EU, labelling, regulations

The European Commission has announced the winner of its contest to design a new logo to appear on all organic food and beverage products in the European Union: a leaf-shaped design from Germany that attracted 63 per cent of the votes.

The Commission turned to design students to come up with the new logo after the initial insignia was withdrawn for resembling too closely the logo of a supermarket chain. The three shortlisted entries were scrutinised closely to ensure there were no infringements, and some 130,000 people voted online for their favourite.

The winning design comprised twelve stars in the shape of a leaf and is said to be “a very straightforward sign containing two clear messages: Nature and Europe”. It was drawn up by German student Dusan Milenkovic, who receives €6000 in prize money. The identities and nationalities of the three final contenders have not previously been published, to prevent skewing the voting.

Agriculture and rural development commissioner Mariann Fischer Boel said: “This exercise has raised the profile of organic food and we now have a logo which everyone will be able to identify with. It’s a nice elegant design and I look forward to buying products carrying this logo from July this year.”

The new logo has to be inserted into the organic farming regulation’s annex in the coming weeks. It will then be compulsory on new organic products as of 1 July 2010, but industry has until 1 January 2012 before labels on all existing products need to be changed. National, region, or private labels will be allowed to appear on packaging alongside the common EU logo.

Not everyone was so delighted with the design, however. Molly Conisbee, director of communications and campaigns at the Soil Association said:

“The Soil Association doesn’t believe the EU logo will address the desire of consumers to know more about the provenance of their food and its journey from the farm to plate, or help to develop a connection between food producer and eater.

We don’t think people who buy organic food are so much concerned about EU origins – as that it was produced to high environmental and animal welfare standards, and is free from GM and harmful additives.”

Richard Jacobs, chief executive of UK control body, Organic Farmers & Growers, told FoodNavigator.com in December:

“As tends to be the case with EU regulation, the timescales are getting tight for implementation. Lead times on new products can be significant and if the logo is adopted only by April or May, it doesn’t give long before the July deadline for its introduction for new products to be suitably labelled.”

Health EU, nutrition labelling, organic logo