Page 8 - Australian Pork Newspaper

FARMERS and FEED MILLERS
SFMC A FeedSafe Accredited
FOR ALL YOUR REQUIREMENTS OF:
Soya beans used in our meals are NOT genetically modified!
CONTACT:
SOYA FEEDSPTY LTD
Bennie St, Industrial Estate, Dalby
Ph (07) 4662 4333
A/Hrs (07) 4663 5534
We use whole soya beans not gradings to supply you with a quality meal
Overseas market access update
LAST month I provided an update on some of Australian Pork Limit- ed’s work towards open- ing the mainland China market, including our new Cooperation Agree- ment with the China Meat Association.
This time, I’ll give a quick update on some oth- er ongoing market access challenges and victories.
First, the good stuff!
The US Food Safety and Inspection Service has concluded that Pork AE- MIS (with a slight twist) meets the requirements for export of Australian pork to the US.
What’s the twist?
FSIS requires a govern- ment inspector on the pro- cessing chain to carry out post-mortem inspections.
This is not currently required under the Pork AEMIS system.
Any plant that wishes to be eligible for export
Policy
to the US will need to implement this change to qualify.
After individual estab- lishment audits and list- ing, Australian pork will be ready to return to the US market.
Of course, the US is a very competitive place to sell pork and local pro- duction costs are signifi- cantly lower than in Aus- tralia.
Competing on price will be a tricky proposition.
However, there are a va- riety of niche, premium opportunities for the right product.
Sustainability creden- tials, provenance stories and ‘natural’ and organic production methods will be a huge advantage for any producer looking to make their mark in the US.
APL is working close- ly with governments in Australia and Singapore to explore a Biosecurity Zoning Agreement.
This means Singapore would recognise areas of Australia as distinct and separate regions (or zones) for biosecurity purposes.
Under the current export arrangement with Singa- pore, a disease outbreak in one part of the coun- try means no Australian farms can send pigs or pork to export markets.
Australia as a country is considered to be a single biosecurity zone.
But the bilateral zoning agreement can change that.
So, for example, a sim- ple zoning arrangement might split Australia into the western and eastern halves.
Each is relatively iso- lated from the other in terms of the potential for disease to spread.
Just because a farm in the west suffers an out- break, that doesn’t mean farms in the east are auto- matically at risk.
Therefore, an outbreak in one zone does not nec- essarily prevent exports from another, disease-free zone.
APL is pursuing this work at the request of the Australian pork export in- dustry.
It is an important means by which we can help mitigate the impact on in- dustry revenues of an ASF outbreak in Australia.
Our modelling of the economic impact of an ASF outbreak on the Australian pig production and processing industry (available on APL’s web- site) revealed a large por- tion of lost revenue would come from the automatic closure of export markets following an outbreak.
Anything we can do to reduce the impact on farmers is smart policy.
Progress with the US and Singapore is good, but South Africa and New Zealand have been posing problems for some export- ers.
South African authori- ties have indicated to the Australian Department of Agriculture for some time that they are dis- satisfied with Australia’s export health certificates for pork.
South Africa has now
made the decision to no longer accept Austral- ian health certificates on consignments of imported pork, meaning Australia can no longer send pork products to that market.
This situation will per- sist until the issue is re- solved.
The Department of Ag- riculture is working on it, but progress has been very slow and APL’s repeated offers to assist have been rebuffed.
In fact, the Department is not revealing why the process is taking so long.
Sometimes this is neces- sary to prevent a small is- sue from becoming larger, or spreading to other ex- port markets.
New Zealand has taken the step of halting all im- ports of processed pork products manufactured in Australia using pork im- ported from third coun- tries.
Prior to the suspension, exporters of these prod- ucts to New Zealand were not required to state the country of origin of the pork or provide the rel- evant health certificates.
It’s not clear why New Zealand has taken this step.
Officials at the Depart- ment of Agriculture in Canberra have speculat- ed that New Zealand is spooked by the possibility of ASF incursion and sim- ply wants assurances that Australia’s biosecurity for imported pork is robust.
Of course, Australia’s biosecurity import condi- tions for pork are stricter than New Zealand’s own arrangements, which al- low for the importation and direct sale of un- cooked pig meat from some countries.
Australia does not al- low this.
Officials believe once New Zealand is educated and assured of our bio- security processes, they may require the country of origin of the pork to be provided, but will other- wise allow trade in these processed products to re- sume.
It’s important to note ex- ports of processed prod- ucts made from Austral- ian pork are not affected by the ban.
Another reason to use Aussie pork in smallgoods – at least for the next little while.
by ANDREW ROBERTSON Policy Manager – Trade and Workforce
can now be used to protect your pregnant and lactating sows
Whole herd protection against Mycoplasma hyopneumoniae. Now for your piglets and sows.
For more information, please contact your Boehringer Ingelheim Animal Health Territory Manager.
® Boehringer Ingelheim Animal Health Australia Pty. Ltd. Level 1, 78 Waterloo Road, North Ryde NSW 2113. ABN 53 071 187 285. Ingelvac MycoFLEX
Boehringer Ingelheim Vetmedica GmbH. All rights reserved. AUS/MFX-191028
is a registered trademark of
ASF messaging needs massaging
☛ from P6
by association.
Let’s not forget con-
sumers have frighten- ingly good memories when it comes to food safety and protect- ing their families and they readily recall the global disaster that was swine flu.
The 2009 swine flu epidemic, which spread across the world in a matter of months, killed thou- sands of people.
It is not hard to imagine today’s con- sumers confusing Af- rican swine fever with swine flu, despite one
being a health issue for them and the other simply affecting pigs.
As if that’s not enough, back in Oc- tober, the CEO of a major WA pig abat- toir was quoted (or, to be fair, maybe mis- quoted) in the West Australian referring to “the heightened intensity around bio- security with African swine flu” when dis- cussing his company’s response to a disrup- tive on-site protest by Direct Action Every- where.
Enough said.
Page 8 – Australian Pork Newspaper, December 2019
www.porknews.com.au