New venison plant for Alliance Smithfield

Alliance Group’s $8.6 million new venison plant at its Smithfield site, near Timaru, is now operating at full capacity.

New Zealand’s leading meat processor and exporter is processing up to 420 carcases a day at the plant, which serves the company’s upper South Island suppliers.

Until now, Smithfield has only processed sheep and lamb, so the venison plant marks a major milestone for Alliance. More than 50 workers are based at the venison plant, which operates most of the year.

Murray Behrent, general manager of livestock says: “Alliance Group has invested in Smithfield as part of its dedication to delivering exceptional product quality and food safety standards. It is also a reflection of our confidence in the region and we have received great support from our suppliers, who are producing the quality livestock that we require.”

“Smithfield is yet another example of Alliance Group’s ongoing investment to ensure we meet the needs of our suppliers,” he adds.

The outlook for venison remains positive and the investment at Smithfield showed the company was focusing on processing a variety of products for global markets, says Behrent.

ViaScan to be installed at Smithfield in the next year

The new venison plant was built to accommodate Alliance’s innovative ViaScan meat scanning technology, which will be installed within the next 12 months at Smithfield, the company says.

ViaScan visually analyses carcases measuring the lean meat, fat and bone, to capture yield performance levels. It has been available since 2003 for analysing sheepmeat, and is already in use at eight Alliance Group plants. The company announced it was first to be extended to its venison suppliers at the Alliance Makarewa in Southland in July this year.

Along with providing suppliers with the opportunity of improving returns, ViaScan also aligns farmers with current market information and helps them with decision-making and the selection of good genetics.

“Exceptional product quality and food safety standards are vital for Alliance Group’s export market,” said Behrent when announcing the move. “We’re targeting high-end consumers with discerning palates who rate meat quality highly when making purchasing decisions and ViaScan helps our suppliers produce the quality livestock that is required.”

ViaScan will also mean suppliers can measure the performance of each individual carcase, particularly when the National Identification and Tracing Scheme (NAIT) is introduced in February 2013 for deer, says Behrent.

Smithfield is one of the three Alliance premises selected by Marks & Spencer to provide chilled New Zealand lamb for its UK retail stores. It is also one of the five first plants to introduce the new Ovine Post-Mortem Inspection system of sheepmeat carcase checks this year.

In 2011, Alliance Group completed a $15 million project to upgrade its Mataura beef plant in Southland.

New CEO for merged AHB and NAIT

William McCook has been appointed chief executive of the organisation soon to be formed through the merger of the Animal Health Board (AHB) and NAIT, the National Animal Identification and Tracing scheme.

McCook is currently the chief executive of AHB. The new role was publicly advertised and his appointment followed a highly competitive selection process.

Jeff Grant, chairman of the new organisation’s board, said that while the immediate focus will be sustaining the success of the bovine TB strategy and completing implementation of the NAIT scheme, the new merged entity will be looking to a broader future.

“We recognise the opportunity to apply and extend the abilities of the two existing organisations to other programmes which will benefit and sustain New Zealand’s primary industries,” he said.

“William brings a proven track record of considerable success in leading the implementation of the TB strategy, together with experience in commercial and export industries. This will allow us to develop an organisation which best meets the needs of our industry stakeholders and local government, while working closely with the Ministry for Primary Industries.”

The first tasks for the board and chief executive will be to plan and implement the merger of the AHB and NAIT. This is expected to be completed by July 2013.

Russell Burnard will continue in his current role as the chief executive of NAIT.

Have your say on proposed NAIT rules

Comments are invited on the new proposed regulations governing the National Identification and Tracing (NAIT) scheme in a discussion paper issued for public consultation by the Ministry for Primary Industries.

The proposed regulations are for infringement offences and for establishing a panel to consider applications for access to the NAIT information system.

The discussion paper sets out 12 proposed infringement offences.It also sets out six proposed regulations for establishing the access panel that will consider applications to access data held in the NAIT information system.

Submissions must be received by 5pm on Wednesday 5 September 2012.

To review the discussion paper and for details of how to make a submission click here.

Lever for high standard food production

It’s happened at last. New Zealand’s new National Animal Identification and Tracing (NAIT) scheme has gone live, which is  welcome news for beef exporters, adding another level of traceability to their product lines

The new National Animal Identification and Tracing (NAIT) Act, which came into effect on 1 July, sets out the legal framework for the collection of information on livestock, their location and movement history throughout their lifetime. It also outlines the governance arrangement and powers for the NAIT organisation.

The scheme is mandatory for cattle from 1 July 2012 and for deer on 1 March 2013 and, according to MPI director general Wayne McNee, forms part of New Zealand’s world-class biosecurity system.

“In the event of a disease outbreak, NAIT and Farms Online will help give assurance to our export markets that New Zealand has identified and contained all of the affected animals.”

Under the NAIT scheme, cattle and deer are tagged with an electronic NAIT-approved RFID ear tag and the NAIT database stores information about each animal’s individual RFID number, its location and the contact details of the person in charge of the animal.

Announcing the news, Primary Industries Minister David Carter said: “NAIT is an important partnership between industry and the Crown which began eight years ago in recognition of the growing need for better animal identification and tracing systems.”

The Minister is delighted that over 30,000 producers and their properties are already registered on the database, which he says is a significant step in protecting New Zealand’s farmers in the international marketplace.

“Lifetime animal traceability is an asset that New Zealand can leverage as part of its international reputation for producing food to the highest standards. It is also an opportunity for farmers to increase productivity by identifying superior animals.”

MIA chief executive Tim Ritchie reiterated the MIA’s support for NAIT: “We see NAIT as an essential tool to minimise and manage risk and impact in the event of a biosecurity incursion and, also, to provide customers and regulatory authorities in our export markets with increased confidence and surety of the integrity of New Zealand’s meat and meat products,” he said.

This article appeared in Food NZ magazine (August/September 2012).

Livestock tracing scheme live

David Carter, NZ Primary Industries MinisterIt’s happened at last. Today’s the day when New Zealand’s new National Animal Identification and Tracing (NAIT) scheme goes live, which will be welcome news for meat exporters.

The new National Animal Identification and Tracing (NAIT) Act, which comes into effect today, sets out the legal framework for the collection of information on livestock, their location and movement history throughout their lifetime. It also outlines the governance arrangement and powers for the NAIT organisation.

The scheme is mandatory for cattle from 1 July 2012 and for deer on 1 March 2013.

Under the NAIT scheme, cattle and deer are tagged with an electronic NAIT-approved RFID ear tag and the NAIT database stores information about each animal’s individual RFID number, its location and the contact details of the person in charge of the animal.

Announcing the news, Primary Industries Minister David Carter says: “NAIT is an important partnership between industry and the Crown which began eight years ago in recognition of the growing need for better animal identification and tracing systems.”

The Minister is delighted that over 30,000 producers and their properties are already registered on the database, which he says is a significant step in protecting New Zealand’s farmers in the international marketplace.

“Lifetime animal traceability is an asset that New Zealand can leverage as part of its international reputation for producing food to the highest standards. It is also an opportunity for farmers to increase productivity by identifying superior animals.”

In the case of a biosecurity outbreak affecting livestock, NAIT will enable a quick and efficient response reducing the impact on the agriculture sector and the entire NZ economy.