Agrifood needs rapid response team
There was no response to a Massey University crisis communications expert’s call for New Zealand to have a rapid response team to help protect the country’s food products and its reputation.
Dr Chris Galloway said the agrifood sector was worth billions of dollars in exports and it would be best protected by a co-ordinated response between industry and government.
But his call for a central unit to defend New Zealand food exports in a time of crisis fell on deaf ears.
He was a speaker at a seminar that was part of the Massey Business School’s ‘Big Issues in Business’ series and about 50 people were there.
School of Business master of ceremonies Claire Massey said agrifood was the biggest business New Zealand had.
‘‘Now’s the time to think about managing food safety and to plan ahead, think about practical issues that might occur.’’
She said New Zealand agrifoods were among the safest in the world, but what happened if there was a major slip-up?
‘‘Reputation risk is tangible and has very real dollar consequences.’’
Fonterra director of group regulatory, global brands and nutrition, Jo Finer, outlined the company’s brand protection.
The co-operative has had to deal with the botulism scare at a New Zealand plant which had exported whey milk powder, and the San Lu company melamine crisis in China.
She said overseas markets were more aware these days of transparency, trust and responsiveness.
She said Fonterra had built its brand after the botulism scare and was a trusted source.
Ministry for Primary Industries (MPI) chief executive Martyn Dunne said half of the country’s income was derived from primary produce.
‘‘Of that 37 per cent comes from dairy products, $18 billion, and 12 per cent from meat.’’
He said the it was critical to New Zealand that all food should be traceable.
‘‘Last year there were 57 food recalls, and so far this year there have been 26. So no matter how small or big your business is, do mock recalls. You need systems in place.’’
He said the botulism scare was the biggest food recall MPI had dealt with and put at risk the $6b trade to China.
‘‘New Zealand food is amongst the best in the world, that’s not to say we couldn’t improve.’’
He said when he started last year, there was one MPI representative in China, and now there were six.
‘‘As well we have people in Brussells, Dubai, Washington and Rome. We export to diverse countries.’’
Dunne said police were still inquiring into the 1080 in milk powder threat from March.
‘‘It has not been put to bed and forgotten. We have done 130,000 tests on milk powder and they have all been negative to 1080.
‘‘But the consumers are vigilant to any sign of tampering.’’
Galloway said MPI was more aware of its role in a food crisis.
But he said there were still gaps in terms of messaging and timing of announcements.
‘‘Handling any food safety threat, speed was essential and in a crisis what could speed things up was the pre-authorisation of people to make certain decisions, without having to go up the organisational ‘food chain’.
‘‘We used to have a so-called ‘golden hour’ during which you could organise and meet the demands of the media and other stakeholders. But no more – organisations have a ‘golden nanosecond’.’’
He said people used social media to release information.
Galloway said a rapid response team that met regularly could share market intelligence about potential threats.
He said protecting New Zealand’s reputation as a food producer was paramount and it was linked to purchase intentions.
‘‘Reputation can be like tooth decay – sometimes you don’t know it’s there until something starts to force you to take notice. The stakes are too high for us not to act – decisively and together.’’