Saturday, March 30, 2024

China road-block cleared

Avatar photo
Certification issues around New Zealand sheep meat and beef exports to China now appear to have been dealt with as exporters continue to try to manage unprecedented growth out of what is now NZ’s largest sheep meat market. Meat Industry Association chief executive Tim Ritchie said the industry was in a far better space than it had been, thanks to an investment of time, co-operation, and human resources across the sector.
Reading Time: 2 minutes

“A year ago we were looking at about a third of our industry’s capacity was compromised by the regulatory impact. We have had a lot of progress, with 13 just approved, and another five in March.

“We would be looking at single-figure percentages for the number of plants still affected.” 

That some companies were not affected at all while some had a mix of plants affected had brought undue competitive advantage into the NZ processing market, and had demanded to be dealt with quickly.

The Ministry for Primary Industries (MPI) released a review of its handling of certification issues encountered with China, and from this has evolved MPI’s China Strategy.

Director-general Scott Gallacher acknowledged in the report the ministry had made mistakes. Plans include greater staff investment in China, and strengthening of relationships with key Chinese officials and regulators. 

The incidents had been separate in terms of what had caused them, with the May issues driven by a change in certificate format that had not yet been approved, causing confusion at the Chinese end.

The July issue was specific to veterinary regulations requiring vets to be linked directly to the last site meat was processed at before export.

Ritchie said a key part of re-establishing better communications and protocols with China had been an industry delegation visit there in June.

“I am not aware of it ever happening before. We had the top people from all major meat processors up there, including the chairs of Alliance and Silver Fern, and CEOs of ANZCO and AFFCO – you could not have got a higher level delegation.”

Such a showing does much in Chinese culture to indenture loyalty as a customer. Ritchie said it also ensured some key aspects of compliance could be discussed in person with regulators.

MPI had also reinforced its presence in China, appointing Roger Smith, the previous deputy director general from NZ for verification and systems.

Ritchie maintained the meat sector was entering a “third phase” of its evolution in NZ, with the Chinese market spearheading that. 

Total
0
Shares
People are also reading