Biosecurity remains top priority: survey

AUCKLAND: Biosecurity remains the top priority for agribusiness leaders, who say it is critical the nation learns from the Covid19 outbreak, according to KPMG’s latest priority survey.

New Zealand would reopen its borders at some point and there was a need for ‘‘better processes, processes designed to protect us more because the porosity of our border is clear’’, KPMG global head of agribusiness Ian Proudfoot said.

That work should already be under way, he said.

Biosecurity had topped the survey every year since KPMG started it 10 years ago, ‘‘but people are much more nervous about biosecurity this year than they have been probably for a few years’’, Mr Proudfoot said.

On a scale of one to 10, biosecurity received a 9.26 ranking in the latest survey, up from 9.08 in the prior year.

‘‘The impact that Covid19 has had and will continue to have on people’s lives and the economy has highlighted how exposed we are as a country to an incursion.

‘‘We need to make sure we are learning from Covid. How it came across the border and how we reacted since it came across the border shouldn’t just be thought about as a health issue,’’ he said.

It ‘‘needs to also be thought

about as a biosecurity issue’’.

Border threats

Mr Proudfoot noted that while the year passed without an incursion on the scale of Mycoplasma bovis, that did not mean the year had been incursionfree.

There were known threats that tested border controls during the year, some of which, such as the brown marmorated stinkbug, ‘‘have the potential to create significant environmental and economic damage if we drop our guard, something we can ill afford given the cost of the Covid19 response’’, he said.

The second leading issue for respondents was the need to sign highquality trade agreements, which scored 8.43 out of 10.

‘‘With the seeds of a shift away from multilateral trade towards increased protectionism and nationalism having been planted over the last two years and given a major boost by Covid19, there is palpable concern amongst many contributors about what might happen to the market access we rely on to create wealth as an exporter of food and fibre products,’’ the survey said.

Many contributors focused on the role of government in maintaining market access and sought more resourcing for negotiating new access and dispute resolution. — BusinessDesk