September 12, 2006

New Zealand mulls tagging of cattle for export markets

New Zealand may soon see a new tagging system for its cattle if the Animal Identification and Traceability Governance Group succeed in their quest to launch a new tagging system by June 2007.

The group includes representatives from BioSecurity New Zealand, the Food Safety Authority and assorted farm groups.

Ian Corney, chairman of the group, said New Zealand has a strong reputation for export of high-quality food exports, especially in the meat and dairy sectors and had robust systems over the years on animal health or market-led standards.

Now, it faces pressure to compete in its export markets and needs to raise its standards so that the country can control potential bio-security risks more effectively, Corney said.

The new system would also foster deeper trust and confidence in New Zealand's products and by extension, its export markets.

Besides biosecurity, New Zealand would also need to demonstrate it has the tracing and tracking systems demanded by international markets, Corney said.

The project hopes to create a governance and regulatory plan that would support the introduction of a single identification and movement tracking system.

The system adopted by New Zealand is likely to build on the international acceptance of radio frequency identification (RFID) tags adopted in countries such as the US.