Page 144 of articles about nutrition

Import duties on certain cereals imported into the EU will be suspended next week until the end of June 2011 in order to ease the pressure on the EU market, especially for animal feed. Backed by Member States this morning within the Management Committee, the move is intended to help maintain a good balance on the EU market. The suspension relates to existing tariff rate quotas for low & medium quality soft wheat and for feed barley, where the preferential tariffs of 12 €/tonne and 16 €/tonne respectively will be reduced to zero for the volumes permitted under the quota.

For 2010-11, total exports are forecast to be slightly lower than 2009-10 due to lower exports of wheat (ex-durum), canola, oats and flaxseed.

At a meeting of the Standing Committee on the Food Chain and Animal Health (SCoFCAH), Member States returned no definitive opinion, either for or against, on proposals tabled by the Commission concerning three applications on GM maize and an application on cotton product.

A prolonged and severe drought that has ravaged some of China's major grain-producing areas is raising concern about the next harvest, says the Ministry of Agriculture.

Sales of grain from the intervention fund will begin on February 4, 2011. By the end of June 2011 the Government plans to sell at the commodity exchange up to 2.5 million metric tons to livestock producers, feed and flour mills. The start-up price of grain sales will vary by types and by provinces, but the minimum is set at 6,000 rubles ($200) per metric ton.

World food prices surged to a new historic peak in January, for the seventh consecutive month, according to the updated FAO Food Price Index, a commodity basket that regularly tracks monthly changes in global food prices.