Grampian Country Food Group announced today that it is to begin manufacturing all of its poultry and pig feed with non-GM soya by June  2001.

This decision has been taken in the light of requests by several of our retail customers to remove GM soya from our animal feeds.

Commenting on this announcement Alban Denton, Grampain's Feeds Division Managing Director said "We have been in negotiations with our supply base for some time to source the volume of non-GM soya we require for our five feed mills. With the support of our retail partners we are now in a position to offer a non-GM poultry and pig feed with the guarnatee that it has been sourced from a hard ip scheme. Consumers will have the confidence that the livestock fed by Grampian will consume a non-GM diet."

By making this decision Grampian Country Food Group is the first major UK animal feed manufaturer to produce non-GM animal feed in all its mills in response to both our consumers and retailer requests.

Where  feed is sourced from third party supplies Grampian will co-operate closely with these farmers and feed compounders to assist them in sourcing non-GM soya to the same exacting standards.

ENDS

Information : Alisdair Cox, Group Corporate Marketing Manager, Grampian Country Foods. Tel 01224 696113

Supplementary Notes

*            Grampian Country Food Group produces 3.8 million chickens, 24,500 pigs a week. To support these activities the Feed Milling Division produces 20,000 tonnes of compound poultry and pig feed per week.

*           Hard IP Non-GM soya : Grampian Country Food Group have procedures in place throughout the supply chain  to form a rigorous quality assurance scheme, ensuring identity preservation. These detailed procedures are backed up with PCR tests, any positive results would lead to rejection from Grampian's supply chain. The whole process is independently validated by an accredited auditing company.

ENDS