Eric Roy: Championing the pork industry

RN: How long have you been involved in the meat industry?

"I've had 60 years' experience farming deer, sheep and beef. I've been a director on a meat company and the Meat and Wool boards electoral college. In the agripolitics side, I've chaired the primary product select committee and brought a very broad experience in governance around agriculture and meat."

How did you end up as chair of NZ Pork back in 2019?

"I was a government appointee, but it's my understanding that the industry asked the ministry to appoint me. They were keen to involve me because of my ability and governance skill, connecting to the process of statutes and all of that sort of thing.

"I'd been involved in just about everything else, but never in the pork industry.

"The board nominates and appoints its own chair. Normally it was a three year appointment, but I insisted they do it every year so if they weren't content with my performance they could get rid of me at any stage. The board moved a motion which elected me as chair, and they did that every year for seven years.

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What was your role as chair?

"I was an independent chair. That had some benefits because to some extent the industry had been divided between outside eco operators and indoors high-tech operators, so I was able to bridge that gap.

"It's not unusual for governments to appoint chair or people onto the board with government experience who then must absorb certain points of relevance within that industry."

What did you do in your time to increase pork's visibility?

"We've sought to differentiate ourselves from imports by having our own audit system. We can affirm to the wider public through our pig care progreamme that every producer is audited on animal welfare, environmental matters and a range of things which imported pork largely isn't.

"We've got websites and a range of things out there promoting not only the nutritious value of pork compared to other proteins but also a range of recipes and ways to prepare and cook pork.

"We find that has been quite beneficial in terms of making people aware of the value and way in which this can be a good nutritious meat-eating experience."

Do you think there is room for expansion in New Zealand's pork industry?

"It does take quite a bit of expense to get in, particularly if you're in an area that topographically isn't suitable for outside farming. That limits where the outside ones can be and if you're going to build an inside one you need buildings with gratings and effluent storage, management and automated feed systems, which are quite a bit more expensive.

"However, there are people expanding and people talking about getting into the industry. It can get bigger, whether or not it could be totally self-sustained that we didn't need to import. We underproduce what's consumed and are reliant on pork being imported to fill that need.

"Monogastics are three to four times as efficient at turning plant material into protein as ruminants. They have much less of a greenhouse gas footprint, so that's something that's going to have more focus on as we go forward.

"We're getting better and better at having a product which is more uniform across the different forms of production."

What are some of the challenges currently facing the industry?

"The World Trade standard that is acceptable to import is lower than the standard we have here. We can't change that, and in many places grain (for feed) is cheaper to produce or may even be subsidised, so production in most other countries are lower than they are here.

"The Government has been trying to work through what the new animal welfare code should look like. Without that people haven't been able to make decision about how much space they need, farrowing systems, weaning facilities, etc."

This government has actually thrown out a lot of the advice the last government had got previously saying 'this isn't world practice or scientifically based, we need to start again'.

"Another one is getting resource consent for something which, if not properly managed, can have a noise or odour problem. We're hoping that the new RMA can have more direct routes to find solutions to those issues."

What is next for Eric Roy?

"I mentioned being involved for 60 years, so you can do the arithmetic on how old you might think I am. I've got my nomination in for the Southland Regional Council, but I am in a bit of a reset... It's time to spend time with the grandchildren, pursue my hobbies and do some travel with my wife. I've made a reasonably solid contribution along a range of the things we've talked about, but one also needs to recognise that now other people can do the job as well."