The other day I was asking a Far East Company how they were progressing with registering Arginine for Animal Feed. ” It must be nearly two years since you started ” I asked. In fact it was nearly two years since they started to try and gain approval for the use of Arginine as a feed additive. Among other things it helps salmon gain more weight. You know gives them a bit extra ooomff in the diet. Does the same for men with libido problems too.
Now there is the difference. As a human I can take arginine supplements if I am lacking in the oommff parts or need heart protection and that is OK. It is an approved additive for food supplements and sports products . I can sell the Far East Company product to any users for supplements and sport nutrition and even infant formulae. However feed the same Arginine to an animal and you need approval and have to register it with the EU to comply with the feed legislation. However two years to get approval for an additive that is already used in animal feed ( albeit from a different supplier ) and made the same way as the current approved source? Is it me or is there something a bit iffy here. ? I mean where are these animals going to end up ? Yes, consumed by humans.
The legislation in feed creates a monopoly for those companies already registered. It would be an advantage for them for a competitor to take more than two years to get an approval. Its almost like a cartel with the approval bodies boosting it up . I thought the EU was all about promoting competition? LOL
So what has this to do with MSG ? Now someone out there may be able to explain it better? How I see it is that there is antidumping on MSG entering the EU brought about by Ajinomoto, incidentally the same company that asked for antidumping in the USA. They can do this as they have a factory in the EU and the USA employing local people and thus jobs are protected. The Chinese and Korean producers make the stuff in China and Indonesia and it is claimed sold below costs. So these origins have to sell at a minimum price to the EU or extra duty is applied to bring price up to the agreed levels.
another country that makes MSG is Brazil but they are not subject to anti-dumping. The producer there, Ajinomoto, would have to apply anti dumping to its own products. So that is not going to happen. So it seems Ajinomoto have a bit of a monopoly in the EU and the USA due to various legislations and inter departmental issues. . I wonder if the Eu factory or the USA factory can supply the market demands? If not they can always ship it in from Brazil.
That made me wonder why it’s taking so long to get Arginine Registered for feed where legislation seems to play a big part