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Alarm At Biosecurity Risk of Palm Kernel Feed
Alarm At Biosecurity Risk of Palm Kernel Feed
07/05/2013 (Stuff.co.nz) - In light of the devastation of the kiwifruit industry by the Psa virus, dairy farmers should be extremely concerned about biosecurity risks from the imported supplementary feed palm kernel expeller, two farming leaders say after visiting Malaysian palm oil crushing plants last year.
David Clark and Colin MacKinnon, of Federated Farmers grain and seed industry group, made an official visit to one plant and another, unofficial visit, to another plant where they found standards well below those required for New Zealand's health import standards.
The problems at the second plant included easy access to the plant for monkeys, rats, stoats, birds and other small animals. The district had a foot and mouth disease outbreak in July last year, and cattle were seen grazing in the plantation nearby.
They found the PKE was sold to a commodity trader and once it reached the wharf it was mixed with PKE from other plants. There was no way to guarantee an export shipment was from a specific mill. Clark and MacKinnon sent their report to the Ministry for Primary Industries four months ago but have yet to see any action. The report was obtained by Fairfax Media in February under the Official Information Act.
New Zealand imports about 1.5 million tonnes of PKE a year for supplementary dairy feed and it is in particularly high demand at the moment because of the drought affecting most of the country.
Both men stressed Federated Farmers was not asking for PKE imports to be banned and they had made recommendations to the Government about how to lower the risk from imported feed.
The Primary Industries Ministry's director of plant, food and environment, Peter Thomson, said the ministry had undertaken to investigate the Federated Farmers representatives' concerns to clarify the context for their observations and whether they were relevant to assurances being provided to New Zealand. "The ministry has made a formal approach to Malaysia's department of agriculture and the National Plant Protection Organisation of Malaysia, and has not yet received an official response.
"Based on inspection, sampling and documentation, the ministry has no evidence that PKE meal from Malaysia does not meet the New Zealand standard." The risk of PKE introducing foot and mouth disease to New Zealand was negligible, he said. Fairfax N.
David Clark and Colin MacKinnon, of Federated Farmers grain and seed industry group, made an official visit to one plant and another, unofficial visit, to another plant where they found standards well below those required for New Zealand's health import standards.
The problems at the second plant included easy access to the plant for monkeys, rats, stoats, birds and other small animals. The district had a foot and mouth disease outbreak in July last year, and cattle were seen grazing in the plantation nearby.
They found the PKE was sold to a commodity trader and once it reached the wharf it was mixed with PKE from other plants. There was no way to guarantee an export shipment was from a specific mill. Clark and MacKinnon sent their report to the Ministry for Primary Industries four months ago but have yet to see any action. The report was obtained by Fairfax Media in February under the Official Information Act.
New Zealand imports about 1.5 million tonnes of PKE a year for supplementary dairy feed and it is in particularly high demand at the moment because of the drought affecting most of the country.
Both men stressed Federated Farmers was not asking for PKE imports to be banned and they had made recommendations to the Government about how to lower the risk from imported feed.
The Primary Industries Ministry's director of plant, food and environment, Peter Thomson, said the ministry had undertaken to investigate the Federated Farmers representatives' concerns to clarify the context for their observations and whether they were relevant to assurances being provided to New Zealand. "The ministry has made a formal approach to Malaysia's department of agriculture and the National Plant Protection Organisation of Malaysia, and has not yet received an official response.
"Based on inspection, sampling and documentation, the ministry has no evidence that PKE meal from Malaysia does not meet the New Zealand standard." The risk of PKE introducing foot and mouth disease to New Zealand was negligible, he said. Fairfax N.