Pressure mounts on EU to delay new deforestation trade rules

Other big beef producing nations, and even some EU member states, have asked for the delay alongside Australia, until all arrangements are both in place and understood.

At the same time, some of Australian beef's key competitors are making efforts to establish themselves as deforestation-free, claiming to be in prime position to meet the new requirements.

The EU deforestation regulations, due to start at the beginning of next year, require companies trading in cattle, cocoa, coffee, oil palm, rubber, soy and wood, as well as products derived from these commodities, to conduct extensive diligence on the supply chain to ensure the goods do not result from post 31 December 2020 deforestation.

Australian beef producers are extremely concerned, with no clear definition on deforestation, let alone frameworks for how a country's status will be proven or how the use of geolocation data and traceability systems will come into play.

The EU is not a huge market for Australian beef volume-wise but it is high value and the EU is also seen as a 'scene setter' for other moves in the direction of prescriptive legislation that could hinder trade access around the world.

Agriculture Minister Murray Watt's office said Australia had specifically requested the enforcement of any penalties arising from the regulation be delayed by at least 24 months after the EU completes country risk assessments for all trading partners.

The concern is that statistics associating Australia with deforestation often combine clearing of primary forest, re-clearing of regrowth forest and clearing of non-forest vegetation into a single number and do not include the extent of forest regrowth and establishment occurring within Australia.

ACM Agri has also seen a letter sent to the president of the European Commission by some EU member states calling for the delay in implementation, along with a threshold such had 0.5 hectares and a general exemption for producers in low-risk countries.

The letter says in order to make the EUDR a success on a global scale, more time was needed. It says farmers and foresters must have legal certainty and face less administrative burden in order to continue to produce food and deliver on biodiversity in the EU and in low-risk partner countries.

The United Nations Food and Agriculture Organisation ranked Australia second globally for increases in forest area, increasing by an average of 446,000 hectares per year between 2010 and 2020 and in the top 10 countries for area of forests legally protected.

The EUDR applies different definitions of 'forest' and 'deforestation' to Australia and the EU includes an exclusion for land that is predominantly under agricultural or urban land use.

The Australian Government says it is seeking to clarify how this exclusion will be applied, as land predominantly under agricultural use in Australia is still shown as forest on the EU's global forest monitoring map, notwithstanding it is predominantly used for agricultural purposes.

Speaking at Beef Australia in Rockhampton this month, Mr Watt said his government did not think these rules were targeting Australia.

Further, he had confidence Australia could demonstrate it did not fall foul of the new rules.

However, he acknowledged there was enormous concern among beef producers about the situation.

"Where we think other countries are imposing requirements that don't have logic we will stand up to that," he said.

"Don't read into that that our government is opposed to strong environmental standards. We are not but what we all need is clear rules and to understand how they will operate before they come into force.

"Consumers are becoming more and more interested in the provenance of their food and what standards were met by producers and we must continue to work to ensure that we meet international requirements around sustainability and animal welfare."

Argentina, which along with Australia is among the top five beef exporting nations, is promoting itself strongly as being "well-poised to take the lead on deforestation-free beef".

It says it has in place a system with ear tags to trace individual cattle and geo-referenced polygons - that is assigned coordinates for farms and ranches that enable the government to identify land plots for tracking.

It has also implemented satellite image analysis to assess compliance with a strong Forest Law, which was put in place to prevent deforestation in medium and high-value conservation areas.

The combination of these two existing systems in Argentina provide a clear path toward a traceable supply of deforestation-free beef, a World Wildlife Fund Business Institute report said.

Australia's beef industry needs to move harder and faster on its deforestation-free credentials, a number of industry leaders believe.

Andrew McDonald, chair of the Red Meat Industry EU and UK Free Trade Agreements Taskforce, said it was well recognised that Australian beef had to look to sell to the highest income people around the world.

It was often governments where these customers lived that were bringing down environmental and animal welfare regulations, he said.

"We are one of the countries best able to meet those type of regulations - yes it takes a lot of effort but we can actually make it where a lot of others can't," he said.

"We could have those high-end consumers to ourselves.

"So we need to be conscious of arguing for a lower bar of entry."