KEY POINTS:
Federated Farmers has attacked the reasoning behind a new electronic tracking system for animals.
Work has been underway on the National Animal Identification and Tracing (Nait) system for more than four years to help to protect the country and its markets against the risk of a biosecurity crisis such as foot and mouth.
A pilot project was run last year and the Nait Governance Group was expected to begin building the system in June and go live on a voluntary basis in June next year before making the scheme compulsory by July 2011.
The system would track all animal movement between farms and from farm to processor using hand-held scanners and recording the results on an electronic database.
Silver Fern Farms, New Zealand's biggest meat exporter, has said it strongly supports Government plans to invest $23 million in establishing the system, particularly given growing demand from large international customers for proof of food security.
But a Federated Farmers spokesman, Lachlan McKenzie, yesterday said some of the claims made for the system were unreal.
"Nait advocates claim it will make New Zealand food exports a premium product living up to our clean and green image," McKenzie said.
"If that's true, then why hasn't one of the major meat processing companies offered farmers a substantial price differential to adopt a voluntary animal ID system?"
A discussion document last year estimated the value from the system at between $301 million and $524 million in the event of an outbreak of disease.
"Nait advocates further claim it will aid rapid market re-entry if we ever suffered a biosecurity incursion," McKenzie said. "I have a two-word answer to that: South Korea."
Federated Farmers said American beef had jumped back to the No 2 importer position in Korea in only a few months after returning to that market last year following an absence of five years due to a BSE outbreak.
McKenzie said: "The big loser in the Korean market is Australia, which has compulsory animal ID but has never suffered from BSE.
"What sets us apart is the high [New Zealand Food Safety Authority] and [Animal Health Board] standards accepted by the Koreans, the Europeans and our other trading partners.
"This tells Federated Farmers that a voluntary animal ID scheme aimed at proving the concept, systems and economic value to farmers, is the only logical way forward."
ANIMAL TRACKS
* A new electronic animal identification and tracking system will use radio frequency tags attached to the ears of animals.
* Supporters argue that pressure for tracking systems is growing internationally and New Zealand is falling behind.
* In the wake of Foot & Mouth and BSE scares consumers in Europe and Asia are demanding more information about the origins of meat products.
* The current "two-tag system" uses a paper trail to track animal movements.
* A voluntary electronic system could go live in 2010 and become compulsory by July 2011.
