Mr. Gerry Lohan:

I wish to point out again that we import approximately 700,000 tonnes of soya bean, meal primarily. The pig, poultry and high-performing dairy herds are not in a position to replace that with an alternative protein source from within the EU or anywhere else in the world. Over 90% of the soya bean cultivated in the USA, Brazil and Argentina is genetically modified. The option of sourcing non-genetically modified soya bean from there is not available. In addition, the amount of soya bean grown within the European Union at the moment is relatively small. It is mainly grown in Italy, Hungary, France, Austria and one or two other countries. They utilise all the soya bean that they grow themselves. In the case of the pig, poultry and high-performance dairy herds, there is no option to replace that protein with any other protein source because there is only a given supply of oil seed rape or beans, to which Deputy Barry referred. Beans are an excellent protein source for ruminants, particularly for beef cattle etc. However, it is not of the same quality of protein as soya bean. From the point of view of the livestock industry in this country, in the short to medium term there is no real alternative source of protein available. Perhaps in the long term we may be able to work on something like that but at the moment it is not available.