Industry makes bid to boost sector's competitiveness

The details are contained in a memorandum to the EU's new president by the Confederation of Food and Drink Industries (CIAA). The EU presidency position is held for six months by Finland, whose term begins on 1 July. The document highlights the EU food and drink sector's priorities through to 2007.

The association has previously noted that even though the EU's food and drink exports have been increasing; the bloc's global share of the export market has been falling for the past 10 years, while countries such as Australia, New Zealand, China and Brazil have boosted theirs.

The EU food and drink sector is also worried about the slowing down of productivity growth and low value added growth in the industry.

The Finnish EU Presidency has already highlighted a number of areas where it wishes to concentrate efforts over the next six months. This includes a focus on trade policy and economic efficiency, which the CIAA says are tied into and related to the priorities of the European food and drink industry.

The EU's food industry association is calling for a raft of changes to proposed laws, calling some of them unworkable and misleading, including those that would regulate novel foods, labelling, additives and enzymes, flavourings, additives, chemicals and health claims.

As the most important manufacturing sector in Europe, the food and drink industry is characterised by high fragmentation of its structure. Further, it is exposed to pressure from the increasingly concentrated and globally active retail sector, the CIAA stated.

The CIAA's benchmarking report, published last week, is part of the industry's attempt to provide a factual backbone to its argument that more action needs to be taken at the EU level to help boost the sector's competitiveness.

It examines how well the food and drink industry performs in an international comparison and identifies a number of structural weaknesses. The report identifies the need to improve research, development and innovation, lower the administrative burden, and ensure access to competitively priced agricultural supplies.

The CIAA argues that the EU's regulatory framework needs to be simpler, more proportionate and less restrictive on the industry. The association has consistently called for specific improvements in a number of different regulatory areas, with a view to reducing the administrative burdens, costs and the negative effects of what it says are "too prescriptive or inadequate legal texts".

"For example, the cost of the pre-market approval of novel foods needs to be reduced and time scales shortened,"​ the association stated. "The legal provisions on additives should be eased to adjust to technical progress while the far too numerous provisions on food labelling need to be modernised, simplified and consolidated."​

The obstacles to increased participation in research and development activities and to better performances in innovation must be addressed and tackled through concerted action from both the food and drink industry and public authorities, the association argues.

In terms of access to agricultural products, the CIAA argues both for less costly supplies from the internal market and the lowering of trade barriers to imports.

"If agricultural reform processes do not provide access to competitive agricultural products, it will be essential to ensure that exporters can make use of alternative instruments,"​ the CIAA argues. "Systems like the inward processing - that allow importing raw materials at world market prices for processing and re-export after manufacturing - must be operational and easy to use."​

In terms of exports, the CIAA says a multilateral agreement at the World Trade Organisation level is still a priority. However trade policy will require more targeted action to improve access to third country markets for EU food and drink exports, the organisation says.

The proposed WTO agreement is expected to help lower subsidies and other forms of support countries provide to their agricultural sectors.

The CIAA suggests the EU should separately work on a bilateral process in key regions like Mercosur, the Mediterranean and the Asian region, where the EU has particular interests, where markets register strong growth and where trade agreements with other trade partners risk putting the EU at a disadvantage.

Non-tariff barriers to trade, including veterinary and hygiene regulations, also pose a problem for the industry, the CIAA stated.

The amount of EU research and development funds currently going to the food industry should be doubled, the CIAA said in another report released last week. The study paints a grim picture of the sector's competitiveness.

The CIAA has called on the EU to provide a higher share of EU research and development funds for agriculture, food and biotechnology. The association wants 11 per cent of the funds earmarked by the bloc for industry R&D instead of the current 5.5 per cent.

Investment in research and development reaches, on average, 0.32 per cent of EU food and drink industry output and is constantly below such spending by the by companies in other developed countries, according to the the report.

Despite boosting exports last year, the EU's food and drink sector share of the global market continues to shrink in the face of overseas competition.

Even large EU-based companies spend per employee 45 per cent of what non-EU food and drink companies invest in R&D, according to figures provided in the CIAA's benchmarking report on competitiveness. Most innovation indicators of the food and drink sector are below the manufacturing industry average.

As the most important manufacturing sector in Europe, the food and drink industry is characterised by high fragmentation of its structure. Further, it is exposed to pressure from the increasingly concentrated and globally active retail sector, the CIAA stated.

"Overall profitability has not been maintained at a sufficient level throughout the food and drink sector to keep and expand investment, notably in R&D,"​ stated the report. "To maintain its position and improve its share on world markets the industry requires greater use of technical know-how and a considerable strengthening of its capacity for innovation."​

The competitive benchmarking report for the sector was released as a means of getting a better grasp on the issues facing the industry.

Exports of EU food and drink products rose in 2004 and continued to grow in the first nine months of 2005, following a slight drop in 2003.

In the first nine months of 2005, exports grew by 4.8 per cent, while imports grew by 3.2 per cent. The trade surplus, which decreased substantially in 2003 and 2004, registered a 23 per cent increase in 2005.

The CIAA has created a programme, called 'Food for Life', to focus the its members efforts on promoting the industry's image and efforts in relation to reducing obesity.

The EU food and drink industry is the largest manufacturing sector in Europe, with an annual production valued at €815 billion. The sector employs four million workers.

According to a CIAA document published previously the bloc's spending on research and development (R&D) remains lower than in other economies when expressed as a percentage of output. The figure is known as "R&D intensity".

Even though the amount spent on R&D in the EU rose by 20 per cent between 1997 and 2001, it accounted only for 0.24 per cent of output in 2001, far beyond the average of 0.35 per cent of its main competitors, the CIAA stated.

Food companies in Australia, Japan, Norway and the US all spend relatively more on R&D than the EU. Japan sits on top of the pile with an R&D intensity reaching almost 0.8 per cent.

Within the EU R&D spending diverges from country to country. The Netherlands and Finland achieve an R&D intensity in the food and drink sector of about 0.50 per cent while new member states are characterised by very low levels. Food and drink companies from large member states, such as Italy, remain below average.

About 77 per cent of food products launched in 2004 were innovative in formulation and only 1.5 per cent of them were innovative in technology, the CIAA noted. Innovation on formulation increased to 77 per cent in 2004, from 66 per cent in 1999 while innovation on both packaging and positioning decreased.

Membership of CIAA is made up of 24 national federations, including two observers. There are 32 EU sector associations, 21 major food and drink companies grouped together in a Liaison Committee.