AUGUST 2013Conference 2013Our annual conference and AGM have now been and gone for another year and we have already started our initial planning for next year. Our many thanks go out to our generous sponsors and guestpresenters who made the conference hum from start to finish. Despite the Wellington earthquake trying to spoil our 81st Conference we continued a week later in Auckland with almost the same line up of guest speakers. Without a doubt the highlight of this years’ conference was the high quality of presentations from our individual speakers. This was the second year we have played Ten Pin bowling as another option for our non-golfers. It was a lot of fun but, because of the $500 first prize offered by our sponsorsMetalcraft, there was a feeling of competiveness on the alleys, particularly on the second round. Congratulations to Hayden Mikkelson who won the grand prize but, he had to fight for it!

The golfers also had a great day of it thanks to the generous sponsorship of AB Equipment. At the gala evening presentation there were prizes galore and Ian Connor had thehonour of being in the winning golf team and the winning quiz team the night before.

If you were unable to attend the conference this year you missed out on some excellent presentations. However, if you are interested I will be arranging to put a selection of presentations on our web site. Francis presents the 10 Pin winner

Hayden Mikkelson

Bruce Mulligan opening the conference

Stephen Drew - EnerNoc

Bonnie Shek on Opportunities in Asia

Peter Brown - our friendlyMPI Advisor

Allan Pollard CEO Pip Fruit NZ

Rowan Hains - EECA

Debbie Mayo-Smith

Grant Black - Apollo Projects

The AB Equipment boyspresenting the golf prizes

Joe Bennett on Entering the Chinese Market

Our gold sponsor Crown

New Zealand and Taiwanese officials signed a comprehensive Economic Cooperation Agreement with the Separate Customs Territory of Taiwan, Penghu, Kinmen and Matsu (collectively known as Taiwan).

The Agreement liberalises and facilitates trade in goods, services and invest-ment between the two markets. It provides for the immediate elimination of all tariffs on dairy, apple, cherry and wine exports to Taiwan. Over 2-3 years, the tariffs on beef and kiwifruit will be eliminated; over 4 years sheep, most fish and seafood products, cream and evaporated milk products, and honey; over 12 years all tariffs will have been eliminated including liquid milk and deer velvet.

Now that is has been signed it will go through the select committee process in NZ and the equivalent government process in Taiwan. It is expected that the agreement will come into force in early December 2013 or on 1 January 2014.

A full text of the Agreement can be found on the website www.nzcio.com

NEW ECONOMIC AGREEMENT

General Business:Bruce reminded members that our strategic plan was on the website and information is regularly being updated. He also reminded members that our bi-monthly newsletter “Cold Facts” is there for all members to use and contribute to. Any articles of interest, events, staff movements, employment opportunities that are relevant to members should be passed on to Jack for inclusion in our newsletter.

Please let Jack know if you require a full set of the minutes.

Annual General Meeting ReportThe Annual General Meeting of

the NZ Cold Storage

Association Inc. was held in

Auckland on Monday 19th

August 2013 at the Waipuna

Exhibition Centre. If you were

unable to attend and would

like to receive a copy of The

President’s report and 2012

financials please let Jack know.

Member Subscriptions: Membership fees were discussed. Because of the Wellington earth-quake and significantly reduced income for the 2013 year it was timely to consider increasing our membership fees for 2014.

Your executive always keep in mind that the main purpose of the Association is to provide a service for members and as a Not for Profit association our focus is not to make money. However, where possible we want to break-even but, we do have funds to cover unexpected situations such as the Wellington earthquake which resulted in the conference attendance being reduced by approximately one third, plus the resulting increased costs.

It was agreed that full membership should be increased by 10% and Associate members should be maintained at present levels. The fees for 2014 shall now be:Members $550 Associate Members $400

Election of Officers:All of the Executive were available for re-election and were so nominated. An additional nomination for the Executive was: Tavita Sao - Americold Bruce welcomed Tavita to the executive team. The Executive is therefore: Bruce Mulligan - President, Alan Middleton – Vice President, Van van Eden, Dion Abrahams, Scott Foster, Alister Morison, Russell Gray, Kevin Archer, Tavita Sao, Jack Bills – Executive Officer

Executive Responsibilities Van van Eden Constitution & Accounts

Alister Morison MPI attendee with support from Bruce Mulligan

Scott Foster Health & Safety Dion Abrahams Fruit industry members / support from Scott Foster

Alan Middleton Meat industry Russell Gray Seafood

Bruce Mulligan Refrigeration

Tavita Sao Membership

Potential Ban on Lamb & Seafood to RussiaSeafood New Zealand Limited and MPI have advised that the Customs Union (Russia) is consideringintroducing a ban on lamb and seafood exports from New Zealand. MPI are in the process of trying to ascertain further information from the Russian authorities. However, in the interim you should consider a trade ban as a serious possibility and it may be advisable to hold anyfurther shipments of seafood to Russia until the situation is further assessed.

Korea Trade Negotiations UpdateNegotiations with Korea have resumed. This FTA could be worth twice the value of the recently signed Taiwanese agreement. The first round of negotiations in the resumed process will be held in October.

Massey food hub to put best minds at one tableMassey University says its agri-food hub will mean more money for the region through the creation of jobs and more advanced food exports. It has developed a FoodHQ, saying it will help meet the Government’s plan for a trebling of the real value of food exports to $60 billion in the next 12 years. The main ideas behind the plan just launched are to give global customers a one-stop-shop and develop food in a way that improved earning power in New Zealand. The plan is to build a FoodHQ building, included in the $250 million upgrade of the Palmerston North campus over the next 20 years.

Zespri Bullish on ChinaChina could become Zespri’s biggest market within five years but it could also become a major competitor on world markets. New Zespri chairman Peter McBride told around 400 growers in Tauranga that the future was bright for kiwifruit exports to China and that the recent conviction of Zespri’s China subsidiary on smuggling charges would have no impact on thatfuture.

Fines for the conviction wiped nearly $6 million off Zespri’s net profit for the year, a double blow for growers battling the devastating Psa-V disease that has now infected 75 per cent of the country’s orchards. McBride said China again delivered record returns, with volumes up 9 per cent to 10 million trays. Market revenue was up 19 per cent to almost $140m.

While global kiwifruit production is falling, production in China is rising. Last year China produced around 700,000 tonnes of kiwifruit for domestic consumers. Around a quarter of this was estimated to be red or gold kiwifruit.

making the industry a $1billion-a-year earner lies in improving market access,especially in the growing Asian markets.

Chief executive Alan Pollard told us in his conference presentation that this goal is ambitious but achievable, despite on-goingobstacles in markets such as China. New Zealand has a free trade agreement there but trade and access agreements don’t necessarily bring rapid results - for example, even though New Zealand has won the right to export apples to Australia after an 80-year ban, it has only been able to send 25 tonnes there this season.

The protocols for getting New Zealand fruit into Australia are quite tough and it’s very expensive to prepare fruit for the Australian market. However, Alan is optimistic that New Zealand will be able to negotiate more workable quarantine rules for sending apples to Australia.

Pipfruit NZ sets sights on $1b goalA new Pipfruit New Zealand strategy aims to more than double the value of apple and pear exports in the next decade. The key to

Eric HollidayThose of you who attended the conference will remember Eric’s excellent presentation “Out of Sight Out of Mind”. Eric is finishing his contract with Z Energy shortly so if any members need any help/support on any Health & Safety matters, you will find Eric extremely useful. To contact Eric please use either this e-mail address: (prosafemarine@xtra.co.nz), or eric.holliday@clear.net.nz in all correspondence.

The Public Service Association says the economic fallout from the Fonterra milk contamination could be repeated in the meat industry if companies continue to have thepower to inspect their own meat.

Last year the government gave the go-ahead to a number of meat companies to carry out their own in-house meat inspections rather than using trained, specialist and independent government meat inspectors employed by AsureQuality. PSA National Secretary Richard Wagstaff says it’s an experiment which opens up our meat export industry to a huge amount of risk.“What is happening with Fonterra milk products shows just how costly a contamination problem can be to New Zealand’s export trade and to the economy as a whole.Contamination in one area of Fonterra’s production supply chain has cast a shadow over all other New Zealand dairy products and is putting the reputation of New Zealand’s entire dairy industry under threat.”

“The same thing could happen in our billion dollar meat export industry if

Warm,Early Spring ForecastIt is common knowledge that we are in for an early spring. NIWA is forecasting a warm, early spring. Temperatures over the September to October period are “very likely” to be above average in the North Island regions and in the north of the South Island. They are “likely” to be average or above average in the east and west of the South Island. Nevertheless, cold snaps, frost and snow conditions will still occur in many areas from time to time, as is typical of this time of year. Sea surface temperatures are also forecast to be above average along the east coast of New Zealand and further offshore, with conditions close to average to the west and in the Tasman Sea.

Rainfall for September–October is forecast to be normal or above normal in the east and north of the North Island and the west of the South Island, while normal or be-low normal rainfall is likely for the west of the North Island and the north of the South Island. Normal rainfall is expected for the east of the South Island. Soil moisture levels and river flows are likely to be normal or below normal in the north of the South Island and the west of the North Island, normal or above normal in the north and east of the North Island as well as the west of the South Island. Normal soil moisture levels and river flows are forecast for the east of the South Island.

In-house meat inspection puts meat industry at

Fonterra-like economic riskjust one company is caught out not conducting proper inspections or if contaminated product got through,” he says. At the moment in-house meat inspection is happening in about fiveplants but AFFCO has indicated it may soon move all its plants to company inspection.

Richard Wagstaff says “there’s an inherent conflict of interest in companies inspecting their own meat which will encourage short-cuts and see commercial interests overriding robust standards of food safety and quality control. The risks are huge and the PSA and meat inspectors have been repeatedly trying to raise concerns.”

“The government needs to join the dots and realise that it only takes one contaminated product to put all others at risk, and bring valuable primary industries to their knees.”“In the interests of food safety, market confidence and economic strength, we urge the government to reinstate a meat inspection regime across all meat companies which is regulated by independent government meat inspectors,” he says.

Jack’s Corner

I would like to finish with a special thank you to our sponsors.This year in particular our sponsors had to change plans and bookings to cater for the move from Wellington to Auckland. Everybody just got on with it and made the necessary changes brought about by the effects of the Wellington earthquake. This is why they are such an important part of our association. Without them it would be impossible to run our association in the way that we have been accustomed. If any of our members need products or services please check out our sponsors first. Let’s make sure we support them in the way they support us!Just to remind you here they are: