Federated Farmers: Lyttelton inspection reassuring

Federated Farmers was invited by MPI to visit Lyttelton Port in Canterbury to view their biosecurity measures around the importation of livestock feed.

Federated Farmers was recently granted access by the Ministry of Primary Industries(MPI) to visit the Port of Lyttelton to view biosecurity measures.

This was a response to increasing concern around the relentless flow of imported feed by manufacturers for further processing and supply. The product that hits our shores often originates from countries where farmers still derive large percentage of their income from subsidies, which have no traceability or quality guaranteed with the product; as in New Zealand.

The Federation's Arable Industry Group(AIG) has frequently raised awareness around our biosecurity system and it's not unjustified.

We have in recent times had a number of threats to our industry. The black grass spill in 2013 in mid-Canterbury could have been catastrophic for our industry; and more recently the maize from Bulgaria that was allegedly contaminated with weed Noogoora burr.

Federated Farmers welcomed MPI's offer and took part in a ship tour and visit to a transitional facility to view biosecurity processes and practices in action, in particular the import health standard for zea mays and grain for processing import system requirements.

The group viewed maize being unloaded from a ship and onto numerous truck and trailer units. Thereafter, each truck was loaded and cleaned down with an air compressor before driven over judder bars to ensure no maize was stuck on any part of the truck.

A visual inspection was then completed by an organisation representative with the truck cleared to leave the port for the transitional facility. We followed the truck to the transitional facility, where we viewed the truck units delivering maize for further processing. Each truck delivered its load and then moved clear of the maize.

The vehicles were thoroughly cleaned with a high pressure hose to ensure no maize was caught in any orifice of the truck. The truck was cleared to return to the Port and begin the cycle again.

What we viewed can only be described as the "gold standard" in terms of adhering to the requirements of our biosecurity system. If all operations were completed in this manner, the majority of our biosecurity concerns would be alleviated.

However, it is not clear this is consistently the case, especially when movements between transitional facilities and processors are over long distances.