Allan Barber: Urgent need for stock tracking

Tony St Clair, the retiring chief executive officer of Federated Farmers, told the Deer Industry Conference in May that he thought the agricultural sector's inability to introduce a national beef and deer identification scheme was a huge threat to ongoing market access.

After eight years promoting the need for such a scheme in New Zealand, he was retiring defeated. Recently he has been in touch, asking me to keep up the crusade, because he thinks the need is more pressing than ever.

After 15 months' work, the Animal Identification and Traceability Working Group has issued its report and is seeking comments. The group is chaired by Jeff Grant, chair of Meat and Wool, and comprises representatives from Federated Farmers, NZ Food Safety Authority, MAF Biosecurity and the meat, dairy and deer industries.

The proposal sets out the need for a system, for biosecurity, market access and on-farm management reasons. It aims at introducing a voluntary scheme by October 1 next year and for it to be mandatory 12 months later.

This timeframe is ambitious, because the present methods are incomplete and designed for different purposes, but a core database already exists that could accelerate the implementation. The industry will have to resolve ownership of the database to make quick progress.

Bearing in mind that New Zealand's dependence on agricultural production makes it vulnerable to biosecurity risks or disease outbreaks, how much attention should be paid to the introduction of a secure system and why is it so urgent?

We have been lucky to date because we haven't had a serious disease outbreak, such as foot and mouth or Johne's disease which affects sheep, lucky because we are nearly 200km from the nearest landfall, and lucky because we have no endemic diseases.

But the world is getting smaller. Visitor numbers are increasing and many want to see our country close up, while the Government wants public access to rivers and lakes across all farm land. All these factors create more risk.

Unfortunately we can't have it both ways. If we want the tourist dollars, or to be able to travel freely overseas ourselves, the price is border protection and a system of traceability on one hand, or loss of market access on the other.

This is where the question of responsibility arises. Farmers have already had to pick up increased compliance costs just to remain in business and they will expect to pay a realistic price to track their animals through the production process, especially if the investment provides them with useful information.

However, they won't be willing to fund the whole cost of maintaining this country's agricultural earnings without support from those that process and market their production and those who benefit from the earnings: the taxpayer.

It is clear to me that it will be one thing to design the animal identification and traceability system, but it will be quite another to agree on the share to be paid by each of the parties involved.

* Allan Barber is a business consultant and former chief operating officer at Affco.