Biosecurity New Zealand deputy director-general Stuart Anderson said the business unit within the Ministry for Primary Industries sent its experts to Indonesia to check the palm kernel supply chain was meeting its biosecurity requirements in light of an outbreak of foot and mouth disease in Indonesia.
The risk of palm kernel carrying the disease was low because of the heat processes used to produce it and the strong import health standards in place for products coming from Indonesia, especially palm kernel.
A virtual audit of Indonesia's palm kernel supply chain last year showed producers were following the unit’s import health standard.
"We wanted to carry out an on-the-ground-audit as an extra layer of assurance.
"Our auditors were able to see all stages of supply chain and found that suppliers are meeting our strict import health standards."
