Penny Symond: Govt Negligence Erodes Meat Export Success

The Government has failed Southland’s meat industry with its unrealistic immigration settings, which have created labour shortages, and are now affecting our exporting ability.

The Meat Industry Association says meat exports are down a massive 11 percent this quarter, from the same time last year, and they’re pointing the finger at labour shortages and COVID-19’s disruption to production.

The Government has been slow to show the primary sector support, despite calls from the industry and the National Party for much of this year, asking for immigration settings to be adjusted to allow much-needed workers into the country.

This included a shortage of halal workers, needed by meat companies to export to a wider range of international markets.

But it wasn’t until April that the Government decided to open up the borders to an additional 500 meat industry workers, despite calls for at least 2000 workers to meet demand. And as of 7 June 2022 – just 120 have arrived in the country.

Unfortunately Southland farmers and the meat industry have paid the price of this negligence, with insufficient labour meaning companies could not run their processing plants at the desired capacity, affecting the whole province during this year’s drought.

This in turn had a flow-on effect for animal welfare, farmer wellbeing and the regional economy.

It was also predicted at the time that exports would be affected, with these latest figures showing a huge 11 percent hit – a reflection of how poorly the Government handled the labour shortage issue.

Certainly there have also been global challenges facing the meat sector with supply chain issues and the war in Ukraine, but when Government policy works against local industry, fails to support the primary sector and impacts negatively on economic growth, questions must be asked.

The meat industry is one of this province’s biggest employers, not to mention the farmers and communities that it supports.

As we come out of the Covid-cloud and look to rebuild our local community, we need leadership which is ready to do everything it can to support regional economies – not to work against them and undermine their success as this Government continues to do.