Welcome to this special edition of CIAA’s e-newsletter.  Since 2 July, CIAA has a new Director General – Mella Frewen.  Mella has over 20 years experience in the agri-food sector and I am confident that her knowledge and understanding of this sector as well as her experience of European affairs will keep CIAA on a continued strong course and further strengthen the European food and drink industry representation in Brussels.

During these past couple of months, CIAA focused on numerous issues including sustainability and feedstock availability for biofuels development, export promotion schemes, providing input to the Commission’s recently published Market Access Strategy and the WTO.  At the end of May, the Commission published its Nutrition White Paper entitled ‘A Strategy for Europe on Nutrition, Overweight and Obesity related to health issues’.  The food and drink industry is pleased that many of the actions it has taken are reconfirmed as priorities in this White Paper.

In addition to publishing the acrylamide pamphlets and the memorandum to the Portuguese Presidency, I am pleased to announce the 2007 update of CIAA’s Benchmarking Report.  The EU food and drink industry is an important pillar of the European economy serving the approximately 480 million consumers with safe and high quality products.  This year’s report takes a closer look at recent developments in the European food and drink sector and makes recommendations to ensure that the EU maintains its competitive position in an increasingly competitive global environment.

Satisfying the ever increasing demand for food and doing this in a sustainable manner will continue to be a key challenge for the industry.  This is why CIAA is in cooperation with SAI Platform organising a Conference on Sustainable Agriculture on 22 - 23 November 2007.  This conference will gather leading industry players, high-level EU officials, various NGOs and academia to discuss and debate the challenging issues the food and drink industry is facing today and in the future.

Bonne lecture!
Jean Martin
CIAA President