Page 11 - RenderAug25

memorandum of understanding (MOU) between NARA and the Moroccan Feed Manufacturers Association (AFAC). This MOU established a framework for sustained collaboration, technical training and policy advocacy to support the adoption of rendered products in poultry, aquaculture and livestock feed.
This collaboration then brought about high-level discussions between the U.S. Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service and Morocco’s National Office for Food Safety (ONSSA), advancing negotiations on sanitary certificates to allow broader importation of U.S. rendered products.
“We have a system audit and study tour on the horizon with three people from ONSSA and two people from AFAC for meetings and site visits in the U.S. to learn more about our food safety system and feed regulatory framework,” Downing explains. “It’s meant to help ONSSA determine that our standards for managing risk and preventive controls for foodborne illness are equivalent to their system and to build confidence in the safety of rendered products from the U.S. That trip is tentatively planned for October.
“To facilitate the trade of U.S. rendered products, Morocco will need to establish import requirements and negotiate a model health certificate with APHIS, so this visit will be a significant step forward in resolving market access barriers,” she adds. “Once the Moroccan market is open, we believe other francophone countries in Africa will likely open as well because they can use the same regulatory standards as a model.”
Next Up
This approach — land then expand — nicely sums up NARA’s strategy in Africa. Of course, that’s a major simplification of the meticulous process that will play out over a number of years. While Meredith and his LixCap associates are working to advance NARA’s mission in Morocco, Tunisia, Senegal and Côte d’Ivoire, market assessments for other areas such as Kenya, Ghana and southern Africa are planned. U.S. rendered ingredients could be vital for all of these countries to grow their pet food and aquaculture markets.
“This is a market that’s going to take a long time,” says Meredith, managing director of LixCap, a consultancy that supports economic development in
www.rendermagazine.com
emerging markets. “But Africa is the only continuous geography on the planet that has a growing population, rising gross domestic product (GDP) and rapidly increasing urbanization — all of which favor animal feed, livestock, poultry and aquaculture production and consumption. There is, however, a lot of legwork to be covered in these markets.”
One of the biggest trade barriers NARA has encountered in Africa dates back to the bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE) crisis from over 20 years ago. Comparable to European standards, regulations in many African countries include banning the inclusion of rendered products in feed formulations — based on outdated BSE risk parameters. The EU is slowly relaxing its feed ban regulations and many regulators in Africa are willing to discuss modernizing their regulations as more information is shared.
“One of our primary objectives in a lot of these markets is to foster an up-to-date understanding about how to manage and mitigate these risks,” Meredith adds. “These factors are well understood and regulated in developed markets. The U.S. industry knows how to safely incorporate rendered products into feedstocks for a healthy and safe ration.
“Right now, we’re trying to build a positive stakeholder environment,” he says. “We’re doing a lot of industry
business-led engagement, speaking directly to the industrial actors, whether it’s the feed millers or the federations that deal with livestock, aquaculture or poultry. Those are the doors we’re knocking on right now. As we get industry on board, then we go together to talk with the regulators.”
Downing points out NARA has a strong message when they talk about U.S. rendered products and why they can have full confidence in using these ingredients when they talk with potential trading partners.
“When we talk with regulators and feed stakeholders, one message is crystal clear — the U.S. only exports animal by- products that we use ourselves in both our feed and food systems,” Downing says. “Contrast that with the EU, which bans certain processed animal proteins (PAPs) domestically yet floods Southeast Asia with them. Selling something to a trading partner that you won’t use at home? That should set off some trust alarms.
“Then there’s Singapore — Europe’s second-largest PAP customer,” she adds. “Imports of 170,000 metric tons of PAP from Europe to a city-state with virtually no livestock? That raises eyebrows and serious questions about transparency and intent.”
Continued on page 10
From left, NARA’s Dr. Charles Starkey visited with Nana Kwasi Fosu Gyabaah, head of formulation for an integrated Ghanian poultry feed mill and processor, at IPPE in Atlanta.
Render August 2025 9