Friday, March 29, 2024

Markets in danger

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New Zealand is at risk of causing global market jitters if its biosecurity doesn’t stand up to international scrutiny, Anzco livestock and agribusiness general manager Grant Bunting says.
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Lack of accountability, farmer confusion, inadequate animal traceability and too many pushing their own agendas were key factors contributing to a situation with potential to end in disaster for the meat industry. 

Bunting called for accountability and was not alone.

“There are wider industry stakeholders and other processing facilities that share the same concern.”

While Mycoplasma bovis and the Ministry for Primary Industries response was clearly the topic of the moment, the National Animal Identification and Tracing (NAIT) programme had much to answer.

“It seems to be very silent and this is possibly concerning as we are constantly hearing it has not really worked and worse, that has come as no surprise to many.”

Responsibility and leadership were needed now.

“Those who are dealing with it (NAIT) on a day-to-day basis don’t share the same confidence as those who are administering it.

“From an industry perspective, where’s the leadership?” 

Bunting said some parts of NAIT were preforming relatively efficiently such as farm-to-processor and farm-to-saleyards movements but farm-to-farm movements were not being recorded.

“For the good of the industry and the country this can’t be glossed over.

“Everyone needs to know a lot more and we all need to know it now so we can get on with business with some confidence and not risk losing international market confidence over a failing biosecurity programme – M bovis has highlighted this.

“It’s the absolute lack of leadership that concerns us. No one is stepping up to take responsibility.”

“At some point we have to concede defeat. 

“The question of the matter is not about the focus on M bovis – it’s on NZ biosecurity for NZ’s reputation that in the extreme of an event we can manage it.

“If we could see evidence less concerned with the political implications and more concerned with the ramifications that some of us have to live with, we would be a lot happier – that’s the undertone.

“We are more than happy to be a part of the solution but right now it’s more about when and where we can engage.”

Sir Graeme Harrison said “Biosecurity is number one and market access is number two.

“If you have not got biosecurity sorted then you have not got market access – it’s as simple as that,” Harrison said.

The M bovis response had been a wake-up call for all and while it was not an extreme event because many countries had it, there were shortcomings where corrective action has to be taken.

“The point is something more extreme could be the next case.”

Harrison said a lot of market access was also dependent on animal health.

He cited blood products and animal tissue for human application such as heart valves and skin ailments.

“These are all dependent on animal health and there would be serious implications if NZ’s animal health status is not standing up.

“This particular M bovis incident is not going to make that difference but we can’t afford another even slight blip in the udder.” 

Meat Industry Association chief executive Tim Ritchie said very clearly there was need to address NAIT shortcomings in readiness for an extreme event such as FMD.

“There’s no point in tracing if we are not producing the outcomes we need to handle an extreme such as FMD.

“The ability to track animals is very, very critical in nailing it down and the sooner we can do that the sooner we get the doors open and get back on track trading again.

“Certainly the learnings in the M bovis response have shown we wouldn’t have that ability right now.”

Ritchie likened the NAIT system to a three-legged stool.

“The processing leg appears to be working well as is the saleyards leg but the third leg, the farm-to-farm transactions is wanting. We need that third leg running.”

He hopes the steering committee reviewing NAIT is addressing the third leg.  

The committee, chaired by Sir Henry van der Heyden, includes representatives from Beef + Lamb NZ, DairyNZ, DeerNZ, Federated Farmers, meat and dairy companies and technical experts.

The MIA was involved with the review but not privy to its findings.

“But certainly we will be ensuring that lessons learned are addressed and effectively taken on board without compromising the outcome,” Ritchie said.

“The perception of (NZ’s) biosecurity is critical to market access and it’s absolutely essential this is right.

“The opportunity is now to get our house in order,” Ritchie said.

 Ospri chairman Jeff Grant said a review scheduled when NAIT was set up was now complete and would be released in a month or so.

It made a range of recommendations to enhance  NAIT.

While compliance of properties to slaughter was sitting at 98% and to saleyards at 94%, Grant acknowledged the area of concern was lack of recording for farm-to-farm movements.

“Effectively that creates the lack of compliance that gives the unknown figure of how many of those transactions are happening between farms and not getting recorded.

“That showed up again in the M bovis response and the review will tackle that now.”

Grant said the non-compliance was not a reflection of NAIT but more how the industry and farmers chose to use it.

“This is a debate we do need to have and the review looked at much better ways to achieving 100% compliance.”

The review report would go have wide industry consultation with MPI ultimately responsible for identifying the flaws and improving the programme.

Where there were enhancements required of NAIT Grant expected Ospri could make that happen “reasonable quickly” within six months.

If regulation was required then that would mean a much a longer timeframe as that was the responsibility of the Crown.

Grant said the end result will be a much more farmer-friendly programme.

He believes NZ’s tracing system is as advanced as anywhere in the world.

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