Meat & Wool New Zealand hosts international beef e

Meat & Wool New Zealand hosts international beef exporting alliance

The Chairmen and CEO’s of farmer organisations from five of the world’s major beef exporting nations, making up the Five Nations Beef Alliance, are meeting in Northland this week to consider how to make beef production more profitable.

Meat & Wool New Zealand Chairman, Mike Petersen said New Zealand was hosting beef producers from Canada, the United States, Mexico, Australia and New Zealand in the forum set up to progress trade policy and technical issues.

“This is an opportunity Meat & Wool New Zealand takes every 18 months or so to deepen our relationships at the highest level with other beef producing nations. These relationships are very important in ensuring that we are able to work together on common issues as they arise in key markets.

“An important component of the conference is the farm tour which allows us to show, farmer to farmer, the farm systems we use in New Zealand to deliver high quality beef products to global markets.”

Mr Petersen said many of the challenges New Zealand farmers faced were similar to those encountered by the other nations.

“In the more formal part of the conference we’ll be talking about how we can approach specific issues together. Challenges we all face include the growing dislocation between producers and urban consumers and the impact that this has on perceptions and expectations on production practices, including animal welfare and sustainability.

“We expect that this will also be a useful opportunity to understand different countries’ approaches to climate change and whether there is an opportunity to forge a combined approach to ensuring that agriculture is treated appropriately in global climate change policy.”

Mr Petersen said the policies and agreements forged in these meetings allowed engagement with international regulators, knowing that the other nations will understand our position and in some cases lend their support. This type of work on behalf of farmers is a core part of Meat & Wool New Zealand’s Market Access activity.

The five countries involved in the beef alliance are represented by the Canadian Cattlemen’s Association, the Cattle Council of Australia, the National Cattlemen’s Beef Association (United States), the Confederacion Nacional de Organizaciones Ganaderas (Mexico) and Meat & Wool New Zealand.

Mr Petersen said the visiting beef producer delegates were being hosted this week on a number of beef farms in the Far North, before heading into the business part of the forum later this week.

ENDS

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