Infested stock food unloaded at Timaru as well as Northport

An insect-contaminated cargo of stockfood was unloaded at Northport and taken to a bio-security facility to be fumigated.

Part of a shipment of insect-contaminated PKE was unloaded in Timaru before the rest of the cargo came to Northport.

When the load of palm kernel expeller (PKE) arrived at Northport, at Marsden Pt, on June 28, a bio-security inspection found it contained living, adult beetles that had possibly come from the PKE's source of origin, Indonesia.

Ministry of Primary Industries (MPI) earlier said the shipment was inspected in Timaru and no insects were found, but until now would not confirm whether any PKE had actually been unloaded there.

MPI confirmed yesterday some of the cargo was unloaded in Timaru before the rest was shipped north.

Palm kernel expeller is the mulched husk left after palm oil extraction, and is used widely in New Zealand as dairy stock food.

The shipment, imported by Fonterra-owned Agriseeds, was unloaded by truck at Northport and taken to a secure MPI facility to be treated with methyl bromide before being distributed as planned, for stock food.

MPI would not say where the facility was, for security reasons.

Federated Farmers arable industry group vice-chairman (seeds) David Clark said the national farming group was alarmed at the increasing number of bio-security incursions.

He said of particular concern was the thought stowaway insects might have been present but not detected in the Timaru off-load — putting not one but two border stations in New Zealand at risk.

FFNZ needed to work with MPI on tougher border bio-security measures, he said.

In an article in the Northern Advocate yesterday Clark was incorrectly referred to as vice-chairman Seeds and Arable Industries.