AGRICULTURE: NON-FOOD TASK FORCE CREATED.

While FEDIOL acknowledges that the European Commission and some Member States have already taken some very positive initiatives, particularly in the energy sector, it feels that "we still lack a global vision, harmonisation and a better co-ordination among the different EU directorates". The vegetable oil industry lobby claims that setting up a non-food Task Force would be "the perfect example of an initiative that will help reach the objectives of Agenda 2000 in terms of environment, health, sustainability, employment and industrial development".FEDIOL argues that the non-food sector needs urgent support since the EU's biggest competitors, such as the US and Malaysia, are already many years ahead of Europe. Although the non-food uses of agricultural products is a promising growth sector, the industry has not yet reached its production and consumption targets and vegetable oil producers feel that the...