The state will establish a contingency warehouse for grain with a stock equivalent to two to three months’ consumption. Both the Norwegian Directorate of Agriculture and the Total Preparedness Commission believe that the country should have six months’ consumption in reserve. The government-appointed commission delivered its report early this week. They are worried about food security in the country. And in the main conclusion, they highlight the need for food storage. But on Thursday afternoon, a large grain silo was blown up at Frya in Sør-Fron. It was GD who first mentioned that the silo should be demolished. There was once an emergency silo Harald Eikerol from Øyer was the first manager at Frya. He says that the reason why the silo was built was that the Norwegian Grain Market and Felleskjøpet were to build an emergency silo. The silo was built in the early 1980s, and is described as a landmark. Eikerol thinks it is wrong that the silo should now be leveled with the ground. – We talk about self-sufficiency and preparedness, but then we tear down what needs to be torn down. – Why aren’t we a little more concerned with supplying ourselves? We are not even self-sufficient in potatoes. We import, he adds. LAST: Harald Eikerol believes the facility was one of the last to be built before the emergency response system was discontinued. Photo: Aleksandr Nedbaev / news The explosion occurred at 6pm on Thursday. What was probably one of Norway’s last preparedness silos is now history. The company AF Decom is carrying out the work. Left unused for over 20 years When Felleskjøpet Agri SA sold the grain silo in 2021, it was part of the agreement that the silo should be demolished within five years. Senior advisor in the communications department Sigbjørn Vedeld says it is common for them to include clauses about demolition, so that it does not look like facilities are standing and falling into disrepair. There were several reasons why the silo had to be demolished. One of the reasons is that the silo had not been used to store grain for over 20 years. In addition, the plant at Frya is far away from the food flour mills in Skien, Vaksdal and Buvika. TOM: There had been no grain storage in the silo at Frya for over 20 years. Photo: Arne Sørenes / news Felleskjøpet believes that future new storage capacity must be built in the areas where the grain is grown and processed. Vedeld also says that any rehabilitation of the facility would cost over NOK 10 million. – The money from the sale at Frya will help to upgrade existing facilities, and also build new grain facilities, he says. DEMOLISHED: This is what it looked like after the silo was demolished. Photo: Arne Sørenes / news Need for new construction Today there is no publicly funded emergency food grain storage. That has not been the case since the emergency system was discontinued at the beginning of the century. – The last stocks were sold in the early 2000s, says Mari Vengnes, senior adviser at the Directorate of Agriculture. In good growth years, Norway uses the entire current storage capacity. Old silos that are no longer in operation do not meet today’s standards. Thus, there is a need for new construction. The directorate has been tasked with working on the basis that the state should not itself own emergency storage, but rather buy services from private providers. This is politically determined. THE STATE’S RESPONSIBILITY: Felleskjøpet believes that emergency storage of grain is the responsibility of the state, but can contribute if the state and government take action. Photo: Harald Inderhaug / news Felleskjøpet Agri SA believes that emergency storage is the state’s responsibility. – The financing cannot lie with the farmer. The joint purchase will likely contribute to emergency storage if the state and government want to implement this, says senior adviser Sigbjørn Vedeld. Timeline – emergency storage of food grains There were supply challenges and concern. Grain was stored on ships that lay at the quay. The storage capacity was built up in the interwar period. The state’s grain business was established and given an import monopoly on grain and concentrate. When Norway was invaded on 9 April 1940, there were approximately 400,000 tonnes of grain in stock. These emergency stocks were large enough to supply the country with grain for food and feed until the end of 1941. Norway’s total grain production quadrupled in the 1960s to the 1990s. There has been a certain decline after 1992. The assessment of the threat picture changed when the Berlin Wall fell and the Cold War ended. Requirements for stock were changed from 12 months to 6 months of normal consumption. In 1995, the transition from the state grain monopoly to the current market system for grain began. The Grain Act was replaced by the Grain Management Act. The requirement for grain storage was discontinued. A new marketing arrangement for grain was introduced, and the State’s grain business was also discontinued. The acceptance obligation and the supply obligation were maintained, when through Norske Felleskjøp, now part of the Felleskjøpet Agri.Kornlagrene was rebuilt. Towards the end of the 1990s, Norwegian production was so large that the emergency requirements were considered to be covered by normal commercial stocks. This was the rationale for the further liquidation of grain stocks. Since around 2008, food grain production in Norway has been declining. Norwegian food grain production makes up fifteen percent of total Norwegian grain production. No less than 60 per cent of the Norwegian consumption of food grains is produced in Norway. The Norwegian share varies with the growing seasons, and has been falling since 2008. Today, preparedness work for food, medicines and other equipment is regulated through the Food Preparedness Act. Agriculture and Food Minister Trygve Slagsvold Vedum established an expert group in 2012, with the aim of making recommendations on measures to increase Norwegian grain production. The following year, the expert group’s recommendations for measures that could contribute to increasing Norwegian grain production by 20 per cent by 2030 came.Based on the Hurdal platform, the Directorate of Agriculture was given a mandate to investigate the establishment of emergency storage for food grain. Later that year, the Directorate submitted its report and recommended a storage equivalent to normal consumption for 6 months. In October 2022, the Ministry of Agriculture and Food commissioned the Directorate of Agriculture to draw up guidelines for the emergency storage of food grains. Guidelines were laid so that the state should not own storage capacity and that a stock should be established corresponding to consumption for 2 or 3 months Show more Want more Norwegian-produced grain There has been a significant decrease in total grain area in Norway over the past 20 years. Managing director of AgriAnalyse, Christian Anton Smedshaug, says that smaller area means less production, but that production is now in the process of stabilizing. Smedshaug is more concerned about whether we are able to use grain production well enough, and what new environmental requirements will mean for production. – We are concerned about how new environmental requirements will play out, both in terms of investment needs and development in the number of producers. STABLE: Christian Anton Smedshaug says that Norwegian grain production is in the process of stabilizing. Photo: Hans Philip Hofgaard Smedshaug believes the most important job going forward is to preserve the grain areas that exist, and arrange for storage where the grain is produced. According to the manager, Norway should have storage capacity for six months. – We must have more storage where the grain is produced, and we must have greater total capacity to be able to use Norwegian production optimally, he says.
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The Total Preparedness Commission calls for stock, but the grain silo at Frya is blown up on Thursday – news Innlandet – Local news, TV and radio
