During a short bilateral meeting at the end of January 2018 between EFPRA’s Technical Director, Dr. Martin Alm and the relevant staff dealing with Animal By-Products at Unit G2, the intra-community trade of animal by-products and derived products destined for incineration was raised in the light of a possible hard Brexit.
EFPRA has informed the commission that since the early nineties, unlike other EU-countries, the United Kingdom developed an important infrastructure to incinerate specifically Category I Meat and Bone Meal. Hence, for many years, several rendering companies in countries in the European Union have been shipping Category I Meat and Bone Meal to the United Kingdom for the safe disposal and incineration in that country. The production of Category I Meat and Bone Meal in the EU-27 (= EU without the UK) is close to 1 Million tonnes per year.
Referring to the legislation, the provisions in Article 43 (1) and Article 43 (3) of the Animal By-Products Regulation 1069/2009 stipulate that:
- The export of animal by-products and derived products destined for incineration or landfill shall be prohibited.
- Category 1 material, Category 2 material and products derived therefrom shall only be exported for purposes other than those referred to in paragraphs 1 and 2 provided that rules for their export have been laid down.
A hard Brexit, which means a BREXIT without a transitional period, would mean that shipping Meat and Bone Meal to the UK would no longer be possible. This will undoubtedly constitute a big problem for the rendering industry in Ireland and mainland Europe as the 27 Member States do not have enough incineration capacity for the safe disposal of Category I Meat and Bone Meal.
Hence, EFPRA urges the European Commission to draft a Regulation that, in case of a hard Brexit, the shipping of Category I material to the United Kingdom, will be further authorised.