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Agreement between DSM and Bel about methane inhibitor
Food and health company DSM has entered into a partnership with Groupe Bel for a pilot project for the use of the methane inhibitor Bovaer. Farmers in France and Slovakia will also start using this product.
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The pilot will start next spring and is part of an acceleration program by Groupe Bel to comply with the Paris climate agreement. Groupe Bel wants to be carbon neutral by 2025.
Bonus for European animal feed
In addition to the pilot with Bovaer, Bel also wants the approximately 750 French suppliers (bundled in the APBO group) to only use European animal feed from October this year. That is one of the requirements that Albert Heijn and A-ware in the Netherlands also have in the Better for program. Participation in the European feeding program is rewarded at Bel with a premium of €0,50 per 100 liters.
This program does not apply to Bel suppliers in Slovakia and the Czech Republic. Nor is anything reported about Bel's dairy farmers in Portugal, Morocco and Ukraine.
Multiple partnerships for Bovaer
DSM announced last year that it wanted to produce Bovaer in a new factory in Dalry, Scotland. At the end of last year, a positive opinion was also received from the European food authority EFSA for Bovaer. The product previously received market approval in Brazil and Chile. In Brazil, beef producer JBS, among others, uses the drug. Fonterra and the Finnish Valio also have partnerships with DSM.