The industry body has provided a briefing to the incoming Parliament, saying there were important issues around biosecurity which required urgent attention, along with other areas, including animal welfare, where it was timely to provide an update on the industry's progress.
Biosecurity was an ongoing concern across the primary sector, with industries devastated by biosecurity incursions over the past several years, including Psa in kiwifruit, varroa in bees and the tomato/potato psyllid.
It was estimated those incursions had cost those industries a minimum of $500 million, with more costs in the foreseeable future incurred by additional crop protection, research and mitigation measures.
The major biosecurity threat to the New Zealand pork industry is the porcine reproductive and respiratory syndrome (PRRS) virus, a highly contagious disease that could cause stillborn fetuses, abortion or respiratory sickness.
It was described as the "No 1 enemy of the pig industry world-wide". A rapidly spreading virus, it was first identified in 1990 and New Zealand was one of the few countries that had escaped its ravages, the briefing said.
NZPork was alarmed that Maf's new import health standards, as proposed, would permit the virus to enter New Zealand through untreated infected pig meat, enter the porcine food chain unchecked through the feeding of uncooked food waste to pigs by the many non-commercial pig farmers in New Zealand and then be spread to the broader commercial pig industry, whose herds co-exist alongside those of non-commercial pig farmers.
Maf's decision-making process in determining the new import health standards was the focus of NZPork's case for judicial review, which was heard in the High Court at Wellington in August. The court has not yet released its decision.
New Zealand pig farmers competed effectively with more than 700 tonnes of pig meat imported each week, predominantly feeding into the bacon, ham and smallgoods market.
Fresh pork was imported primarily from Europe, Canada, the United States and Australia.
About 55% of New Zealand's demand for pork and pork products is satisfied by domestic production, with surveys showing the majority of New Zealand consumers favoured locally produced pork products.
Since 2010, the pork industry had taken on board consumer concerns about animal welfare and adopted new welfare standards, committing to a complete phasing out of gestation stalls (sow stalls) by 2015. That change came at a significant expense to farmers, but farmers were on track to achieve it.
NZPork was committed to ongoing improvements, both to meet the consumer demand for "free-farmed" pork and to compete with trading partners. The "great majority" of pig meat imported into New Zealand was raised under animal welfare standards which would not meet local requirements.
