6 MARCH 2017 NEWS SNIPS Foley Family Wines - whose brands include Vavasour and Martinborough Vineyard - turned to a loss in its first half as it battles falling wine sales and the aftermath of last year’s Kaikoura earthquake Veritas Investments has reached a confidential settlement with a former Nosh franchisee who sought to terminate his agreement after buying the business just days before the company disclosed its financial difficulties HEINEKEN has announced it will be a worldwide partner of Rugby World Cup 2019 in Japan, continuing as an official partner of rugby’s leading global tournament DB Breweries has announced five recipients of the 2017 DB Leading Light Scholarships, awarded to South Auckland businesspeople to develop and enhance New Zealand’s leadership talent pool N E W S BABY SEALION NUMBERS UP News that sea lion pup numbers are on the rise on the Auckland Islands has thrilled the New Zealand seafood industry. Deepwater Group chief executive George Clement says the Department of Conservation’s annual survey results show numbers up by 14%, and strengthens the support of the industry for conservation work in the Subantarctic and of monitoring of the sea lion populations in particular. “Over the past decade, while some sea lion populations have increased in size, the Auckland Islands’ rookeries have shown concerning declines in pup numbers, principally caused by disease and by deaths due to starvation after falling into holes,” Clement says. “Industry is committed to ensuring effective mitigation of any risks to sea lions by fishing, including the use of Sea Lion Exclusion Devices (SLED), regular training of crews on how to identify and mitigate the risks, and observers on board trawl vessels to audit performance and identify where further improvements could be made. Although fishing does not affect pups, adult sea lions do occasionally enter our nets while feeding. The use of SLEDs has reduced the annual number of sea lion captures to typically between one and six per year.” Clement says the industry is committed to playing its part in protecting unique and endemic species. CRABS, FLIES AND MAGGOTS: What do a chillybin of live spanner crabs from Thailand, fruit fly larvae in mangos and two brown marmorated stink bugs found in a traveller’s tent all have in common? They have all been intercepted by Ministry for Primary Industries biosecurity staff this summer at airports around the country. MPI north passenger and mail manager Craig Hughes says staff have intercepted risky goods ranging from the bizarre to the potentially devastating for New Zealand’s economy and environment, in the face of huge numbers of arriving passengers – many of whom have little knowledge of biosecurity. More than 12,600 biosecurity risk items were nabbed in January, with 1829 undeclared, when MPI screened 684,407 air passengers – an increase of more than 10% from the previous January. The spanner crabs were found at Wellington Airport, the fruit fly larvae at Auckland Airport inside a suitcase from Malaysia jammed full of plant produce and other food, and freshwater fish from Thailand found crawling with maggots in Auckland. Two brown marmorated stink bugs were found during a search of a tent used by a US traveller arriving at Auckland Airport, along with untreated spring water from Fiji believed to have healing properties and known as miracle water. SHEEP AND BEEF SUCCESS Beef + Lamb New Zealand and the Meat Industry Association have welcomed the successful completion of joint scoping discussions towards an EU – NZ Free Trade Agreement (FTA) announced by the Government. Trade liberalisation, including through FTAs, creates a stable and level playing field on which to compete and it is hugely important to the growth and future prosperity of the sheep and beef sector and New Zealand as a whole, the two organisations say. “The completion of the scoping discussions is a significant step towards launching FTA negotiations this year,” Beef + Lamb chief executive Sam McIvor says. The European Union is an important market for New Zealand red meat products, worth more than NZ$1.8 billion in the year ended December 2016. The EU is New Zealand’s largest market by region for sheepmeat exports and second-largest for chilled beef and wool exports, taking this country’s highest quality and value cuts. SIGN UP FOR YOUR FREE DIGITAL SUBSCRIPTION www.foodtechnology.co.nz
FT-Mar17-eMag
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