Sustainability has its price – UFOP demands surcharge

On the occasion of the presentation of the estimated area under rapeseed for 2011, the chairman of the Union zur Förderung von Oel- und Proteinpflanzen e.V. (UFOP), Dr. Klaus Kliem, demanded a different market price in favour of rapeseed with sustainability certificate.

The reason for a reasonable price difference between rapeseed with and without sustainability certificate was to recover the extra cost of certification, registration, administration and control. The cost of certification had to reflect in the price, Dr. Kliem insisted.

With reference to the present positive price development, the UFOP chairman sees this trend already confirmed in the market. Sustainable rapeseed was rare and therefore more expensive. The reason the UFOP chairman said was that Germany was practically the only country at present to apply the Renewable Energies Directive in national law which made rapeseed for which a mass balance on the basis of a producer declaration has been established virtually the only source for the production of biofuel which could be applied towards the fulfilment of the quota obligation or for application of tax concession. Looking at Europe’s need for raw materials to meet the quota obligations, this unique proposition would play an important role not only in Germany but all over the EU in future, Dr. Kliem was sure. In view of the foreseeable development of the volume requirements the UFOP chairman demanded that sustainability should also be applied to the exchange contracts of MATIF, by way of a sustainable price impulse to raise the interest of farmers and farm produce traders to provide the necessary administrative preconditions not only in Germany but also in other member states.

Along with this, the preconditions for the unhampered trade in raw materials, vegetable oils or biodiesel are also created. After all, sustainability had its price, the UFOP chairman insisted referring to the raw material supply in Germany. On the basis of the robust development of the REDCERT certification system especially on the level of the lead registrants the mineral oil industry was in a position today to obtain, on a calculatory basis, the quantities for the supply of input material and biofuel. By extending the mass balance period until June 30, 2011 and the possibility of accounting within a company in Germany the government can create the administrative preconditions that the 2010 rapeseed harvest can be recorded under sustainability aspects and delivered to the oilseed mills without the necessity of an ecologically doubtful additional road transport. The provision of this flexibility option still required the approval of the German environment minister. Dr. Kliem recalled the proven principle of equivalence for growing renewable primary products on set-aside land and called upon the EU Commission not to bar the way to slim administrational demands. Maintenance of the „identity“ principle with regard to the origin of raw materials was reasonable only as long as this principle did not give rise to applications that made no sense ecologically.