Reaction Nevedi: Facts about soy in animal feed

The media are currently discussing the use of soya in animal feed. This was prompted by the recent fires in the Amazon. Not all discussions are factual. There appears to be little knowledge about soy imports into the Netherlands and the use of soy products for animal feed and human consumption. Global, European and national figures are also used interchangeably. The animal feed industry uses soy products in animal feed, which is why Nevedi wants to contribute constructively to the discussion by listing the facts. At the same time, Nevedi invites everyone to consult the Nevedi website, including our Raw Materials Guide. 

Soy use in the Dutch animal feed industry

In 2018, the Dutch animal feed industry used 1.74 million tonnes of soy products, most of which were soybean meal. All this soy is sustainably grown and meets the sustainability standards that have been drawn up at European level within the European Association for the Animal Feed Industry (FEFAC) and that have been laid down in the Fefac Soy Sourcing Guidelines (FSSG). This benchmark has led to the approval of 18 certification schemes for sustainable soy. All these schemes do not allow illegal deforestation and 8 schemes do not allow legal deforestation (source: Profundo 2019). The standards also set requirements for respecting the rights of the indigenous population and other sustainability criteria. One of the best-known of the 8 deforestation-free standards is the Round Table Responsible Soy (RTRS). In the Netherlands, RTRS certificates are most often cited as sustainable by Dutch nature and environmental organisations.

As of 2015, there will be agreements in the Netherlands between the animal feed sector and the production chains for dairy, meat and eggs that only RTRS soy may be used for all animal products sold on the Dutch market. For the sale of animal products outside the Netherlands, RTRS soy must also be used in the case of dairy products. All other soy used in Dutch animal feed must be certified according to one of the 18 standards approved by the FSSG. Soybean meal has the best amino acids in its protein and is therefore a very suitable raw material for the feed of growing young animals. There are currently no protein raw materials in the Netherlands that can be used more efficiently. For the time being, consumers/supermarkets are not willing or able to compensate Dutch farmers for more expensive alternatives to soy. 

The Dutch animal feed sector has therefore been using 100% sustainable soy for years. Nevedi itself was actively involved in the establishment of RTRS and has been at the forefront of making soy production more sustainable since 2006. In addition, the European animal feed industry has been subscribing to the Amazon Soy Moratorium since 2006, which prevents soy from the Amazon from being marketed in Europe from land that was deforested after July 2006. This week, the European animal feed organisation FEFAC published a report on this subject on the Feed Navigator website.

Soybeans

The high-protein and high-fat soybean can be used as a whole bean in animal feed, but this is not common. Normally the bean is crushed. This is a process of separating the oil from the rest of the bean after the bean husks have been removed. 1000 kg of soybeans provide about 190 to 200 litres of soybean oil, about 20 kg of soybean hulls, 790 kg of soybean meal and a small amount of production loss. In terms of mass, the soybean therefore consists of about 20% oil and 80% soy meal. In the world market the value of oil and flour fluctuates, but over the years the value ratio oil / flour is almost equal. Since soybean oil is mainly used for food and biofuels, the production of soy depends on revenues from the food, biofuels and animal feed industries. Since soybean meal is mainly used for animal feed, the involvement of the animal feed industry in the sustainable cultivation of soy worldwide is logical.

Some 334 million tonnes of soya are cultivated worldwide. Of these, some 34.4 million tonnes come to the European Union. Ultimately, 30.9 million tonnes of this, in the form of soybean meal, will be used in the European animal feed sector (figures 2017, IDH 2019). Dutch consumption is about 1.74 million tonnes of soy products, which is about 5 per mille of world production.

Soy in the Netherlands

The Netherlands imports soybean meal and soybeans. A significant proportion of these are supplied directly to other countries in Europe. In addition, a significant proportion of the soybeans imported into the Netherlands are crushed. The oil, scrap and hulls that are released as a result are sold partly in the Netherlands and partly outside the Netherlands (Source: CBS 2018).

For 2018, these figures (for human consumption and animal feed combined) are as follows:

These figures show that far more soybean meal is exported than we import into the Netherlands. And that while we also process soybean meal in animal feed. The difference arises because the vast majority of the soybeans that the Netherlands imports are crossed here in the Netherlands and then find their way into the rest of Europe as soybean meal, oil and hulls. More about this can be found in our Raw Materials Guide*.

*Note: our most recent data are based on figures for 2018. Trade flows of soybean meal have changed dramatically due to trade policy tensions between the US and China. Meanwhile, the vast majority of soybean imports to Europe/Netherlands come from North America. Nevedi continues to work towards the sustainable production of soy in South America, but in fact this has hardly touched Dutch animal feed. Nevedi considers the preservation of biodiversity and the sustainable production of meat, dairy and eggs to be important. This explains our worldwide commitment to the sustainable production of raw materials in general.

Physical separation of sustainable soy and purchase of certificates (book & claim)

This means that 334 million tonnes of soy are grown worldwide (IUCN 2017), of which 19.4 million tonnes meet one of the 18 sustainability certificates included in the Fefac Soy Sourcing Guidelines. In practice, this means that it is very difficult to set up logistics chains in such a way that product flows of sustainable and non-sustainable soy from the production areas can be transported to Europe completely separately. For this reason, the method known as 'Book & Claim' is used in particular. This means that animal feed companies in the Netherlands buy a certificate for every tonne of soy product they use, which guarantees that a tonne of sustainable soy is also grown somewhere. Within Europe, all parties - both within and outside the animal feed sector - are working hard to increase the market share of sustainable soy. As soon as the number of hectares of sustainable soy in a certain region is large enough, it will effectively be possible to lead sustainable soy - separated from non-sustainably grown soy - further through the logistics chain and also to supply it separately at ports and at companies in the Netherlands and elsewhere in Europe. This certification is known as 'mass balance certification'. Nevedi has been working on this for many years in consultation with the Dutch and European governments and various well-known NGOs in the Netherlands.

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