Manufacturers & GMO/Non-GMOs products: moving forward into complexity

Producers of GMO-free products in the Dairy industry are developing rapidly. However, will they remain competitive compared to products containing GMO?

The estimates for 2017 show that about 9% of the production of milk would follow non-GMO requirements, and about 9% of meat production. 21% of chicken would be fed without GMO, so are about 13% laying hens and between 16% and 17% of pork. The GMO-free market today represents about a quarter of the production of feed. The guarantee of a product “GMO-free” is expensive, and it can represent up to a third of the price of soybean meal. Consequently, the following questions arise: why should the “made in France” be systematically be GMO-free? Should we claim all products GMO-free? To address these questions, the STNO – Socle Technique Nourri sans OGM (technical base fed GMO-free) – was created in 2012 and aims to gather manufacturers who commit to source raw materials containing less than 0.9% GMO and to proceed to a follow-up analysis of the finished products. For the Director of the SNIA (trade association representing the feed sector), the choice of using GMO or GMO-free products in the feed follows micro and macro-economic considerations: “On one hand, the manufacturer of the feed addresses specific requirements or makes a product they want to claim “GMO-free”; on the other hand, choices are made based on availabilities and prices of raw materials, in which case the standard remains GMO based products”.