EU puts off organic poultry feed rules till 2014

This means that organic producers can continue to use 5% of non-organic protein feeds currently not available in organic form until the end of 2014.

 

The European Commission first planned to end the derogation for non-organic feed by 1 January 2012. However this was be delayed for an unspecified time in December, as there were fears that this would leave poultry producers short of raw ingredients to provide the nutritional requirements for their birds.

 

The regulation on regional sourcing has also been amended. Although producers will now be required to source a percentage of feed “produced in the same region in cooperation with other organic farms or feed business operators”, the levels have been lowered from 40% to 20%, while 60% of feed for herbivores must be sourced from either on-farm or from the region, originally set at 70%.