Organic exports ready to ride green tide

Organics may benefit but expected trade sanctions could affect conventional producers, writes MATHEW DEARNALEY.

New Zealand's fast-growing organic foods export industry is gathering forces to ride a new tide of "green protectionism" being fuelled overseas by alarm over mad cow disease and genetically engineered food.

A parliamentary committee inquiry has heard that such protectionism, invoking an exemption to the Gatt Uruguay Round agreement on agricultural trade, has gained much greater political legitimacy than envisaged even six months ago.

Otago University research leader Dr Hugh Campbell told the primary production select committee that the exemption was a serious mistake for free trade negotiators but a striking victory for European Union delegates and environmentalists.

It allows environmental and food safety criteria to form a technical barrier to trade as long as scientific consensus exists over concerns in these areas.

And Dr Campbell says the EU and countries such as Japan have succeeded in recent months in widening the loophole, so that trade sanctions can be imposed even in the absence of incontrovertible scientific proof that certain food is unsafe.

He says scientific concern alone can be enough to trigger sanctions, playing into the hands of countries wishing to protect domestic producers, and potentially compromising the long-term status of conventionally produced food exports.

This has potentially serious ramifications for New Zealand, with only 1 per cent of our farmers so far certified as using organic methods, although many more say they are considering switching over.

But Dr Campbell said yesterday that a saving grace was the fact more than half our horticultural exports were produced under integrated pest management regimes which were pioneered by the kiwifruit industry and leave minimum chemical residues.

He said it was essential that the Government increase research and development spending to resolve various technical problems in the organics industry, and show a lead to farmers who would like to switch but do not know how.

Integrated pest management was an important stepping-stone on the way to pure organic methods, which require a three-year lead time.

His plea for Government assistance follows a Lincoln University study, in which he was also involved, which found that 37 per cent of 656 surveyed farmers and growers intend turning to organic methods in the next 10 years.

By contrast, just 21 per cent said they intended using gene technology, while an even sparser 12 per cent were actually willing to eat genetically modified food.

Yet gene technology far outstrips organic agriculture in terms of Government research assistance.

Dr Campbell, an agricultural anthropologist who heads a research centre on food and environmental issues, said the figures were extraordinary and appeared to show a large "reality gap"in the minds of those farmers involved.

"I don't really know what to make of it," he admitted yesterday.

But his submission to the parliamentary inquiry noted that genuine organic regimes had become one of the most effective means of access to European markets for high-value food exports.

His submission also estimated that the world market for organic agriculture was worth between $37.5 billion and $50 billion last year, with large British supermarket chains among those offering financial support to producers to ensure consistent supplies.

New Zealand's export share was comparatively tiny, at just over $60 million, but this represented a 53 per cent growth from the previous annual figure of $39 million.

The Organic Products Exporters' Group has a target of $500 million in annual exports in five years, but Dr Campbell said this could be achieved only if the dairying and meat industries joined horticulture in making a solid commitment to organics.

Our domestic market for organic food, although initially slow to take off, is meanwhile growing by just under 50 per cent annually and was worth at least $32 million last year.

This is likely to be boosted by Heinz-Wattie's pitch to mainstream shoppers with its new Earth's Best range of organic frozen vegetables, at what it says are more-affordable prices than those traditionally charged for organic foods.