Next month it will have been a year since former Prime Minister John Key in Beijing claimed to have brokered a deal with China’s leadership on regulatory steps needed to accept imports of chilled meat from New Zealand.
Key’s prediction that exports could begin within a couple of months proved overly optimistic with officials continuing to haggle over the finer detail and the trade was still to get under way.
But in a statement to Farmers Weekly this week Primary Industries Ministeer Nathan Guy hinted that a breakthrough on the necessary protocols might have been reached.
“Our officials have been working hard on this issue with their Chinese counterparts to work out the complicated technical issues involved.
“We’ve made very good progress on this and will have an announcement to make in the near future.”
Sources said the announcement could come as early as next week when Chinese Premier Li Keqiang arrived in NZ for a three-day visit.
The second-most powerful leader in China after President Xi Jinping would have wrapped up a visit to Australia where hopes were high that improved access for its own chilled meat exports would be announced.
Australia had limited access to the Chinese market for chilled meat up to a maximum of 20,000 tonnes a year.
Meat industry sources said any deal to improve access for Australia augured well for NZ, which would argue the gap in access to the Chinese market between the two countries should not be allowed to open up further without some improvements for exporters on this side of the Tasman.
Following his visit to Beijing Key predicted access for premium-priced chilled meat in China could be worth hundreds of millions of dollars to the NZ meat industry – a prediction that was backed up by at least one major meat exporter at the time.
Other impediments to NZ’s meat trade with China that could be addressed in an updated protocol included a ban on green runners and casings – which continue to be imported from Australia – and plant listings.
About half of NZ’s export plants had export listings for China and many of them were not fully accredited for all products.
Just what level of chilled access exporters could expect and whether other impediments would be addressed in any updated protocol was unclear.
Meat industry sources said the details of the announcement were being held more tightly than usual by officials.
More than one senior industry source claimed to have no knowledge of what it would contain.
One said last-minute snags in discussions with the Chinese over market access and regulatory matters were not unknown.
“The timing feels right but I just would not say it is going to happen. We are all hopeful but we have been hopeful for some time.”
