OSPRI writes off $17m over botched traceability system
Animal disease management agency OSPRI has written off nearly $17 million after a botched attempt to launch a new integrated animal disease management and traceability system.
The deer industry is working on getting more venison into Asia.
A delegation from Deer Industry New Zealand (DINZ) recently brought a taste of New Zealand venison to China and South Korea to gain more space for the meat on Asian menus.
The delegation included DINZ executive chair Mandy Bell, and executive chef Graham Brown, who created special dinners showcasing deer industry products.
While the region is more associated with exports of velvet, venison is starting to take off in China.
Bell says the trip was “very good”, adding that there were three specific focuses for it: velvet, venison, and a showcase of New Zealand’s export products.
“We had a fantastic reception at an evening event at the Ritz and had 30 really well-connected chefs and distributors from around Shanghai,” Bell told Rural News.
She says that while the event was small, it was fantastic to have a chef like Graham Brown show people how to utilise venison and incorporate it into the cuisine of that market.
“He had several days working with chefs before the showcase and then we had the special dinner and we had two other chefs that also joined up,” Bell explains.
She says that New Zealand’s venison industry currently doesn’t have any real competitors in the Chinese market.
“That’s why going over to China and South Korea was particularly interesting,” she says.
According to the most recent Rabobank Rural Confidence Survey, farmer confidence has inched higher, reaching its second highest reading in the last decade.
From 1 October, new livestock movement restrictions will be introduced in parts of Central Otago dealing with infected possums spreading bovine TB to livestock.
Phoebe Scherer, a technical manager from the Bay of Plenty, has won the 2025 Young Grower of the Year national title.
The Fencing Contractors Association of New Zealand (FCANZ) celebrated the best of the best at the 2025 Fencing Industry Awards, providing the opportunity to honour both rising talent and industry stalwarts.
Award-winning boutique cheese company, Cranky Goat Ltd has gone into voluntary liquidation.
As an independent review of the National Pest Management Plan for TB finds the goal of complete eradication by 2055 is still valide, feedback is being sought on how to finish the job.
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