Meat prices to increase in the future, says Danish official
"We may pay a few pennies more for our meat," declared Danish Food Minister Mogens Jensen while discussing the goal of food companies to use only deforestation-free soy as feed for the livestock.
A new report from the University of Copenhagen shows that using responsible and deforestation soy will only make a number of meat and dairy products marginally more expensive than the alternative.
Production of meat, eggs and butter is only a few pennies more expensive if the soy used as animal feed is deforestation-free, it shows a new report from the Department of Food and Resource Economics at the University of Copenhagen, commissioned by the Ministry of the Environment and Food. The report points to what it will mean for the price of a number of foods if Danish agriculture uses only deforestation soy in its production.
Food Minister Mogens Jensen has previously stated that he wants imported soy to be responsibly produced and does not lead to deforestation in other parts of the world.
"Danish companies should be at the forefront and ensure that imports of soy are as low as possible on our planet. We all have a responsibility to stop the rising global deforestation. I understand that if you as a farmer think it can be expensive, but now we have a new report that shows that it will not actually entail large expenses," said Mogens Jensen.
A number of large Danish companies have already announced plans for more responsible imports. This is positive according to Mogens Jensen, but he wants the rest of the profession to follow suit. He will, therefore, launch an action plan against deforestation later this year, which will help ensure that Danish imports of soy and other agricultural products do not have a forest or other valuable nature on conscience in the future.
Denmark imports about 1.6-1.7 million tonnes of soy annually. Soy is widely used as protein feed in the agricultural sector. The University of Copenhagen estimates that the proportion of Denmark's imports of soybean certified deforestation is around 20%.
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