Sector unity

He believes that B+LNZ has been a real catalyst for pulling the industry together and points to the much closer relationship between MIA and his organisation. He adds that the relationship with one of its key partners, DairyNZ, is also solid and also points to the vastly improved relationship with MPI.

McIvor says the huge amount of trust that's been built up means that all parties are now recognising their respective knowledge and skills which bodes well should NZ have to deal with something like an outbreak of foot and mouth disease.

"The industry has had a huge number of common challenges to deal with in the last six or seven years, such as Covid and M. bovis, as well as regulatory uncertainty.

"You can't deal with these challenges on your own and it's the good relationships that have got us through many of the crisis that we as a sector have to deal with," he says.

McIvor says he is extremely proud of what his team has achieved, including the Red Meat Profit Partnership, Taste Pure Nature and the development of B+LNZ's environmental strategy. He says participation in B+LNZ's own awards, along with Ahuwhenua awards, have been high points for him.

He says good news has come with the free trade agreements with the UK and the EU.

He says one of the challenges is for NZ to extract the maximum amount of benefit from these and it's a well-known fact that up to 40% of the value of an FTA can be lost in implementation.

McIvor believes productivity in the sector needs to improve and says it's stagnated a bit in the last few years. He also believes that NZ still lacks some of the tools needed for on-farm measurement and verification. He says ongoing develop of the organisation's R&D platform will be key in the future.