Big beef lobby meets in Northland

Farmer leaders from five of the world's major beef exporting nations are meeting in Northland as the Five Nations Beef Alliance at talks on how to make beef production more profitable.

New Zealand was hosting beef producers from Canada, the United States, Mexico, and Australia in the forum set up to progress trade policy and technical issues.

It was an opportunity to "deepen" relationships with other beef-producing nations which were important to ensuring cooperation on common issues in key markets, Meat and Wool New Zealand chairman Mike Petersen said.

"An important component of the conference is the farm tour which allows us to show, farmer to farmer, the farm systems we use in New Zealand," he said.

Many of the challenges New Zealand farmers faced were similar to those encountered by the other nations.

"In the more formal part of the conference we'll be talking about how we can approach specific issues together," said Mr Petersen.

Challenges all the nations faced included the growing divide between townies and farmers, and the effect this "dislocation" between producers and urban consumers had on perceptions and expectations of production practices, including animal welfare and sustainability.

There was also an opportunity to understand different countries' approaches to climate change and to look at the potential for a combined approach to agriculture in climate change policy.

Mr Petersen said a key part of Meat and Wool NZ's market access work was dealing with the Canadian Cattlemen's Association, the Cattle Council of Australia, the National Cattlemen's Beef Association (United States), and the Confederacion Nacional de Organizaciones Ganaderas (Mexico).

Policies and agreements forged in these meetings helped in dealing with international regulators, when it was important that other nations understood the New Zealand position and in some cases provide support.

The visiting beef farmers are being hosted on cattle farms in the Far North, starting the business part of the forum later this week.