8.5 Government Relations

Nutreco Government Relations: mission, activities in 2021 and outlook for 2022

Establishment of central Government Relations team

Nutreco’s Government Relations and Regulatory Affairs department is responsible for overseeing the company’s relations with governmental bodies and authorities. This activity aims at maintaining a good relationship with authorities worldwide, with the intention to understand the legal requirements (intelligence) and to explain what we need to realise our purpose of Feeding the Future (advocacy). Topics for discussion that were valued most according to an internal enquiry among Nutreco decision makers were the promotion of innovation (notably the market access of feed additives), sustainability and international trade.

Advocacy was organised through direct contact with authorities as well as through industry associations that act on our behalf. Nutreco
always operates in compliance with the applicable anti-trust legislation and internal ethical codes. Employees in the central Government Relations team are also registered in the transparency register of the EU.

Activities in 2021

In 2021, a main priority was the revision process that the EU feed additive legislation is currently undergoing as part of the Farm to Fork initiative. The European Commission has given ample opportunity to the animal feed sector to address bottlenecks in the current legislation, and Nutreco supported them in finding solutions. We have stressed that the legislation should allow for the communication of certain effects of feed additives in the market (for example, environmental benefits) to make sure that farmers can realise their sustainability targets. Also, the benefits of applying feed additives through drinking water was extensively discussed with authorities to provide a better legal basis for this use; our experience with water products like Selko-pH helped deliver a greater understanding of the importance of these concepts for the health and welfare of animals.

Lastly, we supported the possibility of manufacturing feed products within the EU that are intended for export and that comply with the legislation of the export country. The revision of the feed additive legislation will be completed in 2023.

Similarly, inputs were provided by our local Canadian colleagues to competent authority Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) for the modernisation of the Canadian Feeds Act and Regulations. Also, new rules on the feed ingredient approval process were proposed. In our advocacy, we strive for universal principles to be applied for feed ingredient registrations, where global harmonisation of registration requirements is the ultimate goal.

In the EU, we addressed a number of ad hoc issues, and tried to find solutions for diverging interpretations from regulatory bodies on existing legislation that may present obstacles to the free movement of feed products within the EU and/ or deviations in exact requirements to be followed for certain feed products. These interventions were usually carried out by various industry associations; Nutreco’s role was to strive for harmonised positions among different actors for optimal impact and introduce technical know-how and business perspectives into the discussion.

Further observations

Because the legislative process is dynamic, with many actors involved, it is difficult to trace back the role that one actor has played in the process. However, we are confident that our advocacy actions have created much more awareness of regulatory developments among Nutreco decision makers.

In many cases, our advocacy is only applied to further optimise law texts that have our support, not to change their direction. An example is the
EU Green Deal, where some concrete legislative proposals help us to fulfil our purpose of Feeding the Future, such as in the area of promoting a circular economy (i.e., through the preservation of coproducts from the food industry) or reducing AMR.

Chapters:

8.1 Nutreco Exploration
8.2 Occupational health and safe work
8.3 Quality assurance
8.4 Ethics and compliance
8.5 Government Relations
8.6 Taxes