Category Archives: Global Trade

International trade decisions or issues affecting, or with the potential to affect, New Zealand meat.

Six Second Project calls on worldwide meat industry to end child starvation

Posted on by
Reply

An ambitious new charitable project encouraging the worldwide meat industry to spearhead a new initiative aimed at ending child starvation and hunger was launched at the recent World Meat Congress in Paris last week, endorsed by the International Meat Secretariat.

The Six-Second Project is a global non-profit organisation, based in the US, deriving its name from the appalling statistic that a child dies every six seconds from hunger or hunger-related causes. The Project aims to raise widespread awareness of that fact, to be achieved through a unified fundraising and awareness campaign led by the global meat industry. Another goal is to foster innovative and sustainable solutions to the hunger pandemic, especially in areas where the six-second statistic is the unacceptable reality, the organisation says.

The worldwide meat industry and its partners are being challenged to join the Project by participating in a unified cause ’cause marketing’ campaign to raise funds for defeating hunger.  The ambitious idea is that project partners will create special products and/or promotions and commit to donating a generous portion of sales to the Six-Second Project. Funds raised will then be used to provide grants that foster innovative and sustainable solutions to the global hunger pandemic.

“It is our hope that, by raising awareness of this global issue, the general public will also be inspired to make a difference, not only through their purchases of products from participating partners, but also through volunteering, donating and recruiting their neighbours and friends to become involved in this noble cause,” say the organisers.

In the unprecedented move – this is believed to be the first time a global industry has been challenged to confront such a crisis – the Six-Second Project is targeting the meat sector’s food production and distribution experts as it believes they have “never been better suited to accept such a challenge”.

The meat industry is not without its critics, its organisers note. “The industry is being challenged to address its environmental impact, and the sustainability of its future production. Likewise, the Six-Second Project challenges the meat industry to harness its size, strength, knowledge and diversity to become the leader in this fight. Through a unified effort to fight hunger, the industry can effect positive change by giving back to the communities that need it most.”

At the project’s launch at the World Meat Congress, chief executive of the US Meat Export Meat Federation, is reported to have said: “This is an opportunity to make meat the brand that is fighting global hunger.”

 

 

 

 

World Meat Congress 2012

Link

Reply

In June, the International Meat Secretariat’s 19th World Meat Congress will take place in Paris, attracting 1,000 meat industry participants from all over the world, including New Zealand.

Taking a turn at organising the biennial Congress this time are the two French meat and livestock associations, Interbev and Inaporc, under the official patronage of the French Ministry of Agriculture. The Congress theme is ‘Proudly producing and trading meat.’

B+LNZ Ltd chief executive Scott Champion and AgResearch’s Stewart Ledgard are two of the 40 or so speakers presenting at the two day congress.  Champion will talk about ‘Sheepmeat in Asia – what are the opportunities and challenges’, while Ledgard will look at ‘Life Cycle Assessment and the need for an internationally agreed methodology’.

Other interesting speakers include Christophe Lafougere of GIRAG, ‘Are we moving towards a world price for meat?’ and ‘Meat marketing supertrends’ from IMS marketing committee chairman Chris Lamb, plus US, China and EU views.

 

 

 

First international standards adopted for animal welfare in livestock production

Posted on by
Reply

The World Organisation for Animal Health (OIE) has adopted new generic guiding principles on animal welfare relating to livestock production systems and a new chapter on the welfare of cattle bred for meat production.

Agreement was reached at the OIE’s 80th General Session, held in Paris and was said to be siginficant by the OIE’s director general Bernard Vallet after delegates’ failure in 2011 to reach agreement on animal welfare of broiler chickens. “This is an historical event that opens the way to adoption of animal welfare standards of other farm animal production,” he said.

The new adopted texts provide for criteria and indicators to measure the welfare of beef cattle, nutritious quality of feed, supplementary lighting for cattle that do not have access to natural light, bedding and many other aspects of cattle breeding conditions.

Other key decisions reached by delegates include new texts on the responsible and prudent use of antibiotics in animals for consumption purposes.

 

Controversy over ‘pink slime’ in the US

Posted on by
Reply

Photo: B+LNZ

A controversy blew up in the US in March and April about the use of lean finely textured beef (LFTB) – also pejoratively coined as ‘pink slime’ – in manufactured ground beef.

Lean, finely-textured beef (LFTB) is lean beef that is separated in a manufacturing process from fatty beef trimmings, to reduce wastage. The process involves treating the LFTB with small amounts of ammonium hydroxide gas or citric acid to eliminate any harmful bacteria present.

The process has been approved as safe by the United States Department of Agriculture and it has been reported that over 70 percent of ground beef used in the US is believed to have incorporated LFTB as an ingredient.

However, a range of media commentators, including ABC News and British celebrity chef Jamie Oliver, have criticised the practice. Despite statements by the USDA and meat industry bodies asserting that LFTB is safe for consumption, a number of major retailers and restaurant chains –  including McDonald’s and Burger King – have recently decided not to use LFTB, as a result of considerable negative publicity about the product.

As a result of the controversy, the major producer of LFTB, Beef Products Inc, announced that it is closing down three of its four processing plants. The American Meat Institute estimates that without LFTB, the industry would need 1.5 million additional head of cattle to make up the difference in beef supply.

LFTB is not used in New Zealand, as the leaner, pasture-raised New Zealand beef does not produce the high fat trimmings that provide the raw ingredient for LFTB, the MIA says.

Published in Food NZ (June/July 2012).

Evolving halal

Posted on by
Reply

Tony Egan' Greenlea Premier Meats new managing director

Greenlea Premier Meat’s new managing director Tony Egan spoke at the Fifth World Halal Research Summit in Kuala Lumpur on behalf of the NZ meat industry – the first time a New Zealander has been invited to do so. He talks to Food NZ about his return to the Egan family company and the New Zealand message he took to the Summit.

Egan is enjoying returning to the company he originally joined  in 1993, starting on day one working on the beef chain.

“It’s great to be back,” he says, after his 11 years since he left his role as managing director (marketing and finance) in 2001. Not that he’s been exactly idle in between: he spent five years as chief executive for AFFCO New Zealand, which had a turnover of $1.5 billion and 3,500 staff, before moving on to head up 1,700 staff and 130 locations of New Zealand’s largest quality assurance organisation AsureQuality for another five years.

He rejoined Waikato-based Greenlea Premier Meats in December 2011. The company these days has 360 staff, employed over two sites in Morrinsville and Hamilton, and a throughput of 180,300 animals last season. The loyal staff seem to be  happy with the family values promulgated by the company, which include personal touches such as Easter eggs, Christmas hams and a family open day at Morrinsville where families are invited to come in and see what their parents do at work. As one employee Zane Sayer puts it on the website, “Greenlea has a very pleasant work atmosphere and we take comfort in knowing we are able to work through the entire year.”

Having worked in private and public companies plus a State-Owned Enterprise, Egan reckons he’s covered off most of the business models now and is looking forward to putting his skills to work, both for the family company and also for the industry. He’s already a new council member of the Meat Industry Association (MIA).

His knowledge of the evolution of halal processing requirements for a variety of Muslim markets over the years, plus the fact that AsureQuality was involved in independent testing for porcine and alcohol traces on behalf of halal authorities in its 32 staff Singaporean office, made Egan the ideal contender to speak to the Fifth World Halal Research Summit in Kuala Lumpur on behalf of the industry.The Summit was held in conjunction with the Seventh World Halal Research Forum. With 1,000 delegates expected from 40 countries it was an important opportunity for New Zealand.

MAF: best halal service provider 2011

The invitation follows on from an award received by the Ministry of Agriculture & Forestry (MAF) for best service provider at the 2011 Forum – the first time a non-Muslim country had received the award and came a year after MAF implemented the Animal Products (Overseas Market Access Requirements for Halal Assurances) Notice, Egan explains.

“It’s a great credit to the work MAF’s director of market access Tony Zohrab and the rest of the MAF team have done in this area.”

Currently involving 48 certified processing plants, employing 214 qualified halal slaughtermen in this country, New Zealand’s market for exports of red meat and other edible products to Muslim markets was worth nearly $490 million to the year end June 2011, according to the MIA. With its diverse markets, and offering an outlet for reducing reliance on traditional trading partners, halal represents a sizeable cross-border sector for the meat industry to focus on to grow market share and value in line with the Red Meat Sector Strategy.

Evolution of thought

The message Egan will be taking to Kuala Lumpur on behalf of the industry is that the trade has moved away from the supply of frozen carcases to Iran in the 1970s and 80s towards newer markets in Asia.“There has been an evolution of thought and the New Zealand industry has taken the time, over the last 15-18 years, to better understand those Asian consumers,” Egan says, adding that the journey of understanding has led religion and science to come together.

The perfect example of that understanding is the innovative New Zealand-developed method of halal slaughter that through stunning livestock insensible before slaughter satisfies both Muslim religious requirements for live slaughter and New Zealand and other Western consumers’ requirements for humane slaughter. But that’s only part of the stringent processing standards in place here today as part of the accredited halal programme, which also include: segregation of halal product, supervision during processing, the training and certification of all halal slaughtermen and the commitment and urgency of the workforce to ensure compliance to halal standards.

The Halal Notice represents the evolution of thought and has formed a good foundation for the industry, giving customers an all-important government assurance that what they understand is happening is in fact occurring, Egan says.

“The paradigm has shifted from a one-dimensional process to a multi-dimensional one.”

What does the halal customer need?

The concept of halal, defined by the Qu’Ran as ‘allowed’, ‘permitted’ or lawful’ has slowly become accepted as a consumer lifestyle choice, not only encompassing religion and food, but also finance, non-food products and logistics. It provides a set of laws and guiding principles and separates out those animals that are prohibited ‘haram’ and those permitted ‘halal’, as well as outlining methods of slaughtering, prohibits consuming blood or blood products and intoxicants, such as alcohol).

Halal customer’s needs focus on the concept of ‘tayyib‘, Egan explains: “That food is wholesome, nutritional and safe. It brings in many concepts including environmental sustainability, safety and animal welfare and is not particularly onerous for New Zealand processors to provide.”

Although there are a number of other meat exporting countries servicing halal markets, he believes that New Zealand has the opportunity to take a unique approach, particularly in the innovation of processes in the wholesomeness and in the wholesomeness and food safety areas for which this country is renowned.

With an estimated 1.5 billion Muslims around the globe, halal markets are still growing. Indonesia alone, New Zealand’s largest halal market, was worth over $120 million last year and there is a growing range of other halal customers – Singapore, South Africa, China, France and the US (where there are over 10 million Muslims). Customers are interested not only in the meat itself, but also the by-products like offal. There is a growing halal market for raw materials for pharmaceutical and cosmetic use, where Egan says there is also a role for AsureQuality to play

Challenges ahead, however, include dealing with restrictive tariffs and quotas, limiting New Zealand’s access to various markets which the meat industry is working closely on with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs & Trade.

Another area is achieving a consistent understanding of what halal certification means across the many different markets.

“New Zealand’s approach is becoming increasingly accepted as the sensible approach,” Egan says, adding that his speaking opportunity outlined what New Zealand Inc is capable of and what’s possible for the future.

Tony Egan spoke at the Fifth World Halal Research Summit, 4-5 April 2012 Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.

Reproduced with kind permission of Food NZ magazine.