News Manure
Digestate tampering harms exports France
Dutch exporters cheat in the export of digestate to France. This creates the impression, among other things, that the solid fraction is composted in the digestate, which in practice does not appear to be the case. Cumela Nederland calls it short-sighted and harmful to exports to France in a statement.
Cumela Netherlands has been drawn to this by the Dutch Food and Consumer Product Safety Authority (NVWA). The interest group now sees a growing problem, because registrations about exports to France show that more and more digestate is being exported as composted manure. In 2018 and the first months of 2019, more than 2.700 loads are solid fraction of digestate exported, giving the appearance that it has been composted.
According to Cumela, this is not the case in practice, as a result of which these loads do not comply with the rules in France for the use of digestate on agricultural land. The shipments are carried out by about 10 exporters and come from about 30 digesters, Cumela said.
Export at stake
Although it is possible that no Dutch rules are being violated, according to the organization, this practice does jeopardize the export position to France. "Supplying a product that does not meet the French fertilizer requirements damages trust and jeopardizes our export position. That is short-sighted and only aimed at short-term gain," writes Hans Verkerk, fertilizer distribution secretary at Cumela. Netherlands.
Eric the Thrush
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