Corporate narrative?
OPINION: Forget about the fabled 'rural-urban' divide, the real fault-line in farming might actually be the divide between grass-roots farmers and the industry corporates who claim to be 'speaking on behalf of farmers'.
PKE rules are there for a reason and importers must abide by them, says Federated Farmers Dairy chairman Andrew Hoggard.
He says a robust process is in place for importing palm kernel expeller (PKE) and all importers seem to follow them.
He was commenting on 23,000 tonnes of PKE sitting on a ship at Tauranga Harbour since early last month; the Ministry of Primary Industries has blocked the vessel MV Molat from unloading the cargo because it came from an unapproved facility.
MPI says the importer is prepared to have the PKE heat treated but there are calls to send the ship back.
Hoggard likened the shipment to cases on the TV show Border Patrol, where people bring in meat without declaring it.
“It’s pretty stupid for people to do that; we have strict rules in place for a reason.”
The shipment, believed to be owned by ADM, came to MPI’s attention on September 2 when it applied for biosecurity clearance.
“On examination of the paperwork, MPI found that a Malaysian facility where some of the PKE was produced was not approved under MPI’s current import health standard,” a MPI spokesman told Dairy News.
At the time of writing MPI was assessing a proposal from the importer to have the product heat treated. “The final decision has yet to be made.”
Primary Industries Minister Nathan Guy is backing MPI’s response.
He says New Zealand has a stringent border security system; it has strengthened under his watch.
He says PKE must come from a certified plant.
“It is an important feed source for the dairy industry.”
Labour has pounced on the shipment and is calling for it to be sent back.
Labour’s biosecurity spokesman Damien O’Connor says the PKE is from an unregistered supplier in Malaysia.
“Unregistered suppliers do not have to meet the stringent safety checks applying to registered suppliers, to ensure there is no biosecurity risk to New Zealand. In this case, we do not know what checks were applied.
“In previous cases, huge biosecurity risk from possible foot and mouth contamination have been identified from PKE imports not up to standard. The risks are high and we should take no chances.
“If National and MPI are considering letting this shipment into our market, it shows they still do not understand the enormous risk biosecurity hazards pose to our economy and communities,” says O’Connor
Greenpeace has questioned why the MPI decision is taking so long.
Labour's agriculture spokesperson Jo Luxton says while New Zealand needs more housing, sacrificing our best farmland to get there is not the answer.
Profitability issues facing arable farmers are the same across the world, says New Zealand's special agricultural trade envoy Hamish Marr.
Over 85% of Fonterra farmer suppliers will be eligible for customer funding up to $1,500 for solutions designed to drive on-farm efficiency gains and reduce emissions intensity.
Tighter beef and lamb production globally have worked to the advantage of NZ, according to the Meat Industry Association (MIA).
Groundswell is ramping up its 'Quit Paris' campaign with signs going up all over the country.
Some farmers in the Nelson region are facing up to five years of hard work to repair their damaged properties caused by the recent devastating floods.
OPINION: Years of floods and low food prices have driven a dairy farm in England's northeast to stop milking its…
OPINION: An animal activist organisation is calling for an investigation into the use of dairy cows in sexuallly explicit content…