Tuesday, 09 April 2024 07:55

Import rules a pig's ear

Written by  Jessica Marshall
A recent report argues New Zealand needs to apply its animal welfare standards to imports. A recent report argues New Zealand needs to apply its animal welfare standards to imports.

Pig farmers say the idea that not every pork product sold in New Zealand has to be produced to this country’s own welfare standards is unfair.

NZ Pork chief executive Brent Kleiss’s comments come after the release of the “Closing the Welfare Gap” report by Animal Policy International.

The report claims that New Zealand ought to apply its animal welfare standards to imports as well as local agricultural products.

“New Zealand has taken steps to improve the conditions for some farmed animals through prohibitions on practices like battery cages, sow stalls, and the imminent farrowing crate ban, earning a C rating on the 2023 Animal Protection Index,” the report reads.

“However, a substantial portion of animal products sold in New Zealand are imported from countries with lower welfare standards, leaving serious welfare gaps.”

It’s an issue Kleiss says is significant for New Zealand’s pig farmers. He says they are proud of the way they produce quality pork under high standards of animal welfare, environmental management and employment practices.

“But it is a fact that pig farming is more expensive and less efficient when done this way,” Kleiss adds.

“Consumers are watching every dollar they spend and it can be difficult to convince people, especially in the current economic circumstances, to spend more on products that are produced to these high standards when they are lined up on the shelf beside a similar cheaper imported product,” he told Rural News

Approximately two thirds of pork consumed in New Zealand, amounting to over 40,000 metric tonnes (MT), was imported in 2023, coming from 22 countries.

Kleiss says that despite this, there is no requirement for the products to meet New Zealand’s pig welfare standards.

“Although the European Union is currently reviewing animal welfare legislation, most EU members and other countries exporting pork to New Zealand have lower standards of pig care and less rigorous enforcement regimes than we do,” Kleiss adds.

For example, in New Zealand, gestation stalls are banned. Yet in Canada and most European countries, sows can be confined in gestation stalls for the first four weeks of pregnancy. In the United States, sows can be confined for their entire pregnancy.

Kleiss says that New Zealand pig farmers do not castrate piglets, but in Europe, the US and Canada, they are routinely castrated.

He adds that in Spain, Poland and the US, this practice is done without pain relief.

“In New Zealand, sows are only housed in farrowing systems when it is time for them to give birth and care for their piglets – with a maximum of five days pre-farrowing and 28 days after. Most EU countries and the US have no limit on how long a sow can be confined in a farrowing system, either before or after giving birth. Canada allows up to six weeks.”

Kleiss says it all comes down to one thing: a need for a level playing field for New Zealand’s pig farmers.

“The new Government should demonstrate its commitment to animal welfare, the environment and local farmers by subjecting imported pork to the same stringent standards that are applied to Kiwi farmers,” he says.

More like this

Painting the cow red

OPINION: How do you get people to stop drinking milk and switch to foods like fruit, vegetables, nuts and grains?

Home detention for animal neglect

A Taranaki dairy farmer received four-month home detention and was disqualified from overseeing of animals for 18 months over a lack of feed and welfare which led to some animals being euthanised.

MFE making a pig's ear of land use policy

The Ministry for the Environment (MfE) has found itself in a stoush with NZPork over the controversial National Policy Statement for Highly Productive Land (NPS-HPL).

Featured

New ag degrees at Massey

Changing skill demands and new job opportunities in the primary sector have prompted Massey University to create a new degree course and add a significant major into another in 2025.

The show is on!

It was bringing in a new Canterbury A&P Association (CAPA) show board, more in tune with the CAPA general committee, that has ensured that Christchurch will have a show this year, says CAPA general committee president Bryce Murray.

National

Food charity to hold online auction

Meat the Need, New Zealand’s dedicated charity delivering locally sourced protein meals to food-insecure communities, is launching an online National…

Machinery & Products

An ideal solution for larger farms

Designed specifically for large farms that want to drill with maximum flexibility, efficiency and power, the new Lemken Solitair ST…

Landpower increases its offering

Landpower and the Claas Harvest Centre network will launch the Claas Scorpion and Torion material handling solutions to the market…

» Latest Print Issues Online

The Hound

Leaky waka

OPINION: Was the ASB Economic Weekly throwing shade on Reserve Bank governor Adrian Orr when reporting on his speech in…

Know-it-alls

OPINION: A reader recently had a shot at the various armchair critics that she judged to be more than a…

» Connect with Rural News

» eNewsletter

Subscribe to our weekly newsletter