GMP+ International & QualimaC Collaborate for Spain
Spain is one of the major producers of animal feed in Europe. Last year, it ranked second while Germany remains the largest producer of compound feed. Spain is focused not only on volume, but also ensuring high quality and safe feed ingredients used for compound feed production. This is one of the reasons QualimaC and GMP+ International decided to collaborate due to the common interest.
QualimaC controls and promotes quality of feed materials imported and used for the North-East region of Spain. Currently, QualimaC integrates manufacturers of compound feed, and companies dedicated to import, supply and trading. They take samples of feed materials that are dispatched at the ports of Tarragona and Barcelona and examine them. These two ports are the main source of supply of feed materials for the animal sector located in Catalonia, Aragon and Castellón. Thus, control policies are only applicable at the final destination of commodities. Therefore, it is very important for them to have information at the origin of the feed materials.
To help each other, last 21 August 2017, GMP+ International and QualimaC signed a collaboration agreement for 6 months pilot period to share information about quality and feed safety including Early Warning System (EWS) monitoring, and analytical results of undesirable substances in animal feed. Both parties believe that ensuring the safety of raw materials is ensuring the safety whole supply chain. Sharing information at all times is beneficial for all the feed segments involved.
According to Mr. Jordi Forés Piquer, Director of QualimaC, “GMP+ International is known worldwide so QualimaC could get more recognition globally due to this partnership. Some of the companies we are in contact with are GMP+ FSA (Feed Safety Assurance) certified and we think that this shows a guarantee of feed safety. We are all aboard the same vessel of feed materials, so it’s a matter of general interest to make sure that the quality and safety are assured. We are all part of the same food chain so we have to collaborate as much as we can, because feed safety is a non-competitive issue”.
GMP+ International has always been open to all groups and sectors that share the same purpose in feed and food chain. “This has been our vision” says Johan den Hartog, Managing Director of GMP+ International: “Our dream is that all companies in the feed chain worldwide contribute to safe and responsible food of animal origin. Therefore we welcome the partnership with QualimaC very much”.