Containing imports remains challenge for growing pork industry

The pork industry is experiencing good growth but still has to compete with increasing volumes of imported meat from Australia and Canada.

The chairman of the New Zealand Pork Industry Board, Chris Trengrove, told delegates at the industry's annual meeting in Christchurch that three years of modest profitability had given producers the confidence to invest in their industry and give processors and retailers the growth they wanted.

"At the moment the industry is going through a strong growth period, which is giving us a great opportunity to grow our share of the market," he said.

"The challenge is there to reclaim a share of the market that has been lost to imports in recent years."

Several years of decreasing production at the end of the 1990s resulted in the New Zealand pig kill declining to below 700,000 head, from a high of more than 800,000. Numbers are rising and the board estimates the pig kill will reach approximately 740,000 this year.

If imports remain at about their present level, increasing pig numbers will create the opportunity to increase domestic consumption of New Zealand pork, he said.

The total consumption of pork and processed pork products is around 17.7kg a head, compared with approximately 20kg in Australia and 40kg in Europe.

With imports accounting for around 36 per cent of consumption, we needed to focus on ensuring that the increased consumption is New Zealand pork, Trengrove said.

He said he was constantly reminded by producers of the uneven playing field of trade bans and quotas, an area into which the board was putting considerable effort.

"In particular we are looking at some of the impediments to becoming a successful exporter of New Zealand pork, such as the Resource Management Act, country of origin labelling and animal welfare issues."

The industry, in conjunction with Massey University, is to receive a research grant from the Foundation for Research Science and Technology.

The grant is worth $350,000 a year for three years and the board's contribution is to be $50,000 a year.

The research will focus on product quality and packaging technology for chilled meats and is specifically linked to the Pork Industry Board's export initiative in Singapore.

The board initiated the development of an export market in South-east Asia and provided the seed capital to form two export networks, both of which involve several companies that are now developing export opportunities in the region.

An established export market would give our industry stability in the face of increasing exports.