Need for NIAT reiterated

If sheep and beef farmers had any doubt about the need for a workable traceability scheme in NZ a trio of speakers at a recent seminar might have changed their minds reports Rural News. First, Agriculture Minister David Carter warned the 200-plus delegates at the Lincoln Sheep and Beef seminar that Australia would take "˜every possible opportunity to use to its advantage' its equivalent of NAIT. He also noted that the Waiheke Island foot and mouth hoax highlighted NZ didn't know who owned what animals and where they were. Later in the day Silver Fern Farms chief executive Keith Cooper chipped in on the need for a national system. "˜We could, overnight, have a policy imposed on us [by customers] which we are not ready to be compliant with,' warned Cooper. He said whatever traceability scheme is implemented it needs to be industry-wide with no free-loaders. Other nations are implementing schemes just to gain access to markets NZ is already supplying. "˜This is about market it access"¦ It's got to be viewed as an investment, not a cost.' With Radio Frequency Identification being installed on freezing work chains the "˜bit missing' is being able to catch and download information about the animal as it comes in to the sticking pen, he added. McDonald's Australia and NZ supply chain purchasing manager Arron Hoyle followed up on Cooper's comments saying traceability would be a key issue for McDonald's over the next decade and highlighted NZ's current lack of a system."˜If we have some incursion, touch wood we won't but if we do, we can't deal with it.' Whatever scheme is implemented needs to be "˜mandated' ie compulsory, and electronic, he said. "˜The speed to stopping something [disease, contamination etc] is really important.' As far as McDonald's is concerned, essential records are date and place of birth, lifetime movements and abattoir.