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$600m export loss companies significant losses because they have been unable to process valuable co-products – such as tripe and edible offals. “They are not being saved and collected simply because there isn’t any labour and those products are going down into the rendering chute and are being downgraded to quite a low value product,” she told Rural News. Karapeeva says meat companies and plants have been very good at
PETER BURKE peterb@ruralnews.co.nz
LABOUR SHORTAGES and immigration stuff-ups have cost the NZ meat industry an estimated $600 million in lost exports. Meat Industry Association (MIA) chief executive Sirma Karapeeva says her team have done some calculations, which – while not perfect – shows that labour constraints have cost meat
managing the limited number of workers they have and balancing that out so that they can continue to process. But she says that they are not processing the carcasses completely, so some of that of that finer secondary processing is being put aside. The result is that extra value is not being realised because the plants are not running at full capacity. “Shifts are being dropped because there isn’t enough people to run those
shifts and that means that not as much product is being put through as quickly as it should be,” she adds. Company bosses spoken to by Rural News add that absenteeism is a problem caused by Covid, but not exclusively so. Whereas in the past there has been a pool of labour to fill those gaps when required and this no longer exists. Getting overseas workers into NZ to fill positions in the meat indus-
Passion and profit! Deer Industry NZ chair Mandy Bell wants the deer industry to be recognised as a sector that produces really healthy protein, farmed by people who are passionate about the environment. She made these comments at a recent function at Parliament to celebrate the end of a seven year, $14 million partnership programme between the deer industry and MPI – known as P2P or Passion2Profit. Its aim has been to improve the profitability of the sector and develop new markets for venison. The function was hosted by the Minister of Agriculture Damien O’Connor and included the former chair of DINZ, Bruce Wills, who was one of the drivers of the project. – See full story page 4.
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try remains a major concern for MIA and Karapeeva says they want further discussion with the Government to sort out the problems. She adds that the Government has done some good things in the immigration space and the sector has had a few small wins with border exemptions, the new sector agreement and accredited employer visa scheme. “Collectively, it is starting to ease the problem, but the proof is always in the pudding and what I am concerned about is that it’s great to have that front end right, but everything will come to a standstill if the backend office processing facility for visas is not working well,” Karapeeva adds. “I am getting quite different reports from companies about their experiences with Immigration NZ. Some are saying they have got an officer in Immigration NZ who is very focused and on to it and processed visas in a timely way. But conversely I am getting reports that it’s like trying to get blood out of a stone dealing with some immigration officers and the files just get put at the bottom of the pile, they not hearing from them and nothing happens.” She explains that it’s critical for the meat industry that the machinery at Immigration NZ works well and that the visa process is done without due delay. Karapeeva has heard horror stories about systems at the department not being up to scratch and complicated files being allocated to junior staff who are simply incapable of actioning them. “This is something we will be raising with government.”
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