NZ raises food safety bar

Hosted by Opposition agriculture spokesperson David Ridgway, the Agribusiness Growth Forum brought together a range of stakeholders to 'share ideas and discuss policy'.

New Zealand Food Safety Minister and Primary Industries Associate Minister Jo Goodhew, who spoke at the seminar, said NZ's safe food reputation had ensured strong global sales.

"We have heaps of fresh water and only use about 2 per cent to 3pc of it but we have a lot of degraded water so we need to work out how to store it so it can be used for primary industries," Ms Goodhew said.

"We have a good record of sustainable farming. We are producing food much more efficiently than 30 years ago.

"For example, we only have 30 million sheep but are producing as much meat as when we had 70m."

Dairy, the country's largest export, brought in revenue of more than $18m in 2014.

This was followed by meat and wool at $8m, forestry $5m, horticulture $3.7m and seafood $1.4m.

Ms Goodhew said NZ aimed to increase exports to 40pc of GDP by 2025.

"We can't just produce more - we have to make more money as well," she said.

"We will leverage natural resources and get greater value from production."

NZ signed a free trade agreement with China some time ago and Ms Goodhew said people sometimes needed to be reminded it was not just good for exporters but generated additional revenue for the tax payer.

"It is about the whole country and not just exporters," she said.

Ms Goodhew was also in favour of the Trans Pacific Partnership agreement signed recently among 12 countries - Australia, NZ, Brunei Darussalam, Canada, Chile, Japan, Malaysia, Mexico, Peru, Singapore, the US and Vietnam.

"To not sign it would have severely impacted bilateral relations with those countries," she said.

Ms Goodhew spoke about innovation in the forestry sector and food labelling, with the country working on a rating system.

She also spoke about a new and developing threat to the nation's health and an issue she was experienced in dealing with, food defence.

Late last year, Fonterra and Federated Farmers received anonymous letters threatening to contaminate infant and other formula with 1080 unless NZ stopped using the chemical for pest control by March 2015.

Ms Goodhew said it was a 'threat to human health using food as a tool' and outlined how the government had worked with stakeholders throughout the supply chain to tackle the threat.