Minister slams department as Chinese meat embargo ends

Published: 4:45PM Thursday May 23, 2013 Source: ONE News

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  Primary Industries Minister Nathan Guy talking to ONE News. - Source: ONE News

The Minister for Primary Industries is not ruling out job losses after an administrative error from his own department led to exports of New Zealand meat being held up on the Chinese border.

Meat exports have been blocked from entering the country since the end of April, and the Ministry for Primary Industries (MPI) made resolving the issue its "number one priority".

Minister Nathan Guy revealed this afternoon it was a mistake in MPI that led to the confusion.

"It provided certification in a format which AQSIQ (Chinese importation officials) had not yet approved, and in doing so caused confusion for Chinese inspectors," he said.

"I am very disappointed in the Ministry for Primary Industries for its mistakes in certification which have caused this delay.

"Accurately certifying exports of New Zealand agricultural goods is a core function for the Ministry and this mistake should never have occurred."

Complying export certificates are now being issued following negotiations with Chinese officials, and Guy said the meat should be allowed into China from next week.

However, he said the way the issue has been handled by his own staff was not satisfactory.

"The Director-General of MPI first informed Food Safety Minister Nikki Kaye and I of this issue on Tuesday 14 May. However, the size of this issue was not made clear until I began receiving calls from the meat industry on Friday 17 May," he said.

"After making my own inquiries it became apparent the issue was bigger than what officials had been telling me so I called the officials in for an explanation on Saturday morning.

"I'm disappointed it has taken so long to get to the bottom of this problem and for the Ministry to come up with a proper explanation. This has been frustrating for myself, the public and meat exporters."

'We will be apologising to meat exporters'

MPI releases around 7000 meat and seafood export certificates a month and acting director-general Andrew Coleman said it is critically important they can rely on the documentation.

"When this issue has been sorted out we will be taking a very hard look at our processes to find out how this happened and make sure it never happens again," he said.

"We will examine why the scale and seriousness of this issue wasn't made clear to Ministers sooner, and the timeliness of our updates. We have apologised to Ministers, and we will be apologising to meat exporters, and the Chinese authorities about the confusion and frustration this issue has caused."

China was the largest buyer of New Zealand's sheepmeat by both volume and value in the first quarter of the year and according to Beef Lamb's latest figures, China took 61,000 tonnes of New Zealand sheepmeat worth $276.8 million in 2011-12.

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Source: http://tvnz.co.nz/politics-news/minister-slams-department-chinese-meat-embargo-ends-5446308?ref=rss

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