New Zealand: PKE load barred from entry

The Ministry for Primary Industries (MPI), which protects New Zealand from biological threats, said it made the decision after considering an application from the importer to have the PKE treated in New Zealand.

"The vessel has now departed,"​ a spokesperson for the MPI told us.

The authorities had already prevented the docking of the load from the MV Molat for over a month after finding some of its cargo had come from an unregistered PKE facility in Malaysia. The ship had been anchored off the Tauranga coast since 6 September as negotiations continued between the importer and the ministry to try and resolve the standoff.

“There is a chance it [the load] could be carrying pests or diseases that could harm New Zealand’s primary industries or natural environment,” ​the spokesperson said earlier this month.

And he said the importer in question could not be named for legal and commercial reasons.

In making its final decision on the load yesterday (18 October), the MPI said it considered the amount of product involved, the availability of heat treatment facilities in the region, transport and storage. 

PKE is produced at high temperatures, which reduces the biosecurity risk. So the main risk is contamination from insects or plant pests after production, Steve Gilbert, MPI border clearance services director, told the New Zealand Herald​.

But the officials concluded no biosecurity method would fully mitigate the risk of pests and diseases from potentially contaminated PKE entering the country.

The New Zealand ministry has strict requirements for PKE imports - the ingredients must have been heat processed to at least 85°C, and foreign facilities producing PKE must be approved and regularly audited by the exporting country.

Shift away from PKE ​

PKE has been increasingly used as a cheap feed supplement by the dairy industry in that country in the past decade, particularly during droughts, when the ingredient is said support cow health and milk production.

In fact, according to Greenpeace, New Zealand has become the single largest user of PKE, importing nearly 2m tons in 2015.

But Fonterra issued guidelines to its farmers last September recommending they limit PKE inclusion levels to a maximum of 3kg per cow per day to make sure cows are predominantly grass-fed and thereby future-proofing the image and value of New Zealand dairy products.

In August this year, New Zealand dairy and beef farming company, Landcorp, announced PKE will not be used on any of its farms from the end of this financial year.

Its CEO, Steven Carden, said all Landcorp farms would transition to alternative feed supplements by June 2017, citing an interest globally in products from grass fed animals.

Carden said that there were obvious times and conditions such as winter and seasonal droughts that meant having alternative food sources to pasture was necessary.

Guy Salmon, the chair of Landcorp’s independent Environmental Reference Group, said palm kernel, which is imported from Southeast Asia, had a large carbon footprint.