$600m export loss

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 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 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 industry 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 agreements 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 fro 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 raisin with government."