CAUCUS OF THE FOOD AND DRINK INDUSTRIES

Statement of the food and beverage industry by Mr. Raymond Destin, Director-General of the Confederation of the Food and Drink Industries of the European Union (CIAA), on behalf of Mr. Gautier, President of the Confederation of the Food and Drink Industries of the European Union.

(This Statement, which could not be delivered, was the report to the World Food Summit on the Seminar on "Food Safety and Processing").

I thank FAO for giving me the opportunity to speak on behalf of the international food and drink industry, and for its support in organizing our seminar on "Food Safety and Processing" which was held today in Rome.

I should like to reiterate the commitment of the food and drink industry to playing an active role in the struggle against hunger and the effort to improve nutrition. Action will thus be taken on three basic fronts: innovation, investment and information, or "the three i's".

Today more than ever before, we are facing a need and a challenge that were the very reasons for the establishment of the food and drink industry and its development: the need to feed ourselves in order to survive, and the challenge to produce and distribute sufficient quantities of quality food at an acceptable price in order to feed a rapidly expanding population. The three i's, innovation, investment and information, must be made available to people in order to improve their food supply in both quantity and quality, particularly in parts of the world where the fundamental need for nourishment is not being met.

Technological progress, that is, innovation, continues at an ever faster pace, especially as regards preserving food. Moreover, new developments in biotechnology in recent years will help us to make significant improvements in the nutritional quality of our products.

Let us move on to investment. The establishment of food and drink industries in developing countries must necessarily accompany the modernization of agriculture, a policy our industries will energetically pursue.

Finally, information. Knowledge of the progress achieved must be widely promulgated. The real advantages of new products, in particular genetically improved products, have to be explained in order to be understood.

With the ultimate goal of eradicating malnutrition and conquering hunger throughout the world, the food and drink industry is thus committed to developing the three i's - innovation, investment and information. A close partnership with all those involved in the various stages of the food chain - farmers, governments, scientists, manufacturers - is thus indispensable.

Hunger is not decreed by fate. Technological progress and better co-operation between all the links in the food chain should allow us to achieve the goals set by Mr. Diouf.