January 15, 2007

 

EU, New Zealand agree on food safety plans
 

 

Officials in the EU and New Zealand have agreed on a common strategy for maintaining meat and dairy exports in the event of a serious animal disease outbreak.

 

New Zealand and the EU negotiators have agreed to an insurance policy against the threat of animal diseases. The agreement was aimed at preventing a major disruption in trade in case a serious disease, like

 foot-and-mouth is discovered in New Zealand herds.

 

The proposal is now awaiting ratification with the European Commission.

 

The agreement establishes and pre-agrees the conditions that would be applied to New Zealand exports such as dairy and meat products in the event of a disease outbreak.

 

The conditions, in general terms, provide for a government-to-government assurance that the animal products being exported have undergone certain treatments (such as heat treatments in the case of dairy products) or have been kept separate from other (possibly affected) products during stages of production, storage and transport.

 

The new conditions would become effective from the moment official notification of a serious animal disease outbreak was given.

 

Up until now, if a serious animal disease was discovered on a farm in New Zealand, planned exports of all animal product, whether in transit, storage or production at the time of discovery, would stop for an indeterminate time.

 

New Zealand is a major dairy exporter to the UK.

 

Despite their geographical isolation New Zealand always has to be on guard against the possibility that a serious and costly animal health disease, such as FMD, could happen there, said Andrew McKenzie, executive director of the New Zealand Food Safety Authority (NZFSA).

 

The arrangement was mutually beneficial to New Zealand and the EU and represented a major step forward in mitigating the trade risks associated with major animal health diseases, said Barry O'Neil, assistant director-general of BNZ.

 

Economic estimates show the cumulative loss to the country's GDP as a result of FMD being discovered in New Zealand could be as much as US$6 billion after one year, rising to US$10 billion after two years.