For the first time, associations representing food industry companies in Finland, Sweden, Denmark, and Norway have formulated common EU goals.
These associations emphasize the need to more strongly consider the competitiveness and profitability of the entire food chain in EU policy, to ensure the best opportunities for providing consumers with food products produced sustainably and to safeguard the resilience of food production.
Rising costs, an ever-increasing regulatory burden, and intensifying global competition are common challenges in all countries. EU policy must support the development of sustainable, resilient, and strong European food production by ensuring smooth trade within the internal market and internationally. The associations stress that climate and environmental objectives should take into account the different starting points of countries, and EU regulations must have flexibility to accommodate the various natural conditions across Europe.
The Nordic countries share a strong interest in developing sustainable food production methods and new food products. To promote innovation in the food sector, both R&D funding instruments and EU legislation that supports the market entry of new products are needed.
“The EU must succeed in developing new innovations in the global competition, which requires, for example, streamlining and accelerating the approval processes for new food innovations. This ensures that new products are manufactured in Europe and not elsewhere in the world,” says Marika Säynevirta, Branch Manager at the Finnish Food and Drink Industries’ Federation.
Food safety is the top priority for the food industry. Alongside food safety, the industry must also meet growing sustainability and security of supply goals. To meet all these objectives, the Nordic food industry calls for more thorough impact assessments of EU regulations and the development of risk-benefit analysis also in food safety legislation.
The food industry is a significant sector in the Nordic countries, employing a total of 185,000 people in over ten thousand companies processing dairy, meat, bakery, beverage, milling, and fish products. The combined turnover of the industry is 85 billion euros. The Nordic countries are leaders in many sustainable food production methods, and the food sector has a strong will to continuously develop production.
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