Andrew Hoggard: Food Safety Minister on the delays in animal and plant health product approvals

The Government's hoping to clear up backlogs of approvals for animal and plant health products as it commits to speeding up processes. 

It's accepted all 16 Ministry of Regulation recommendations for cutting red tape in agriculture and horticulture.  

That follows last year's review, looking into processes for new veterinary medicines and agri-chemicals. 

Food Safety Minister Andrew Hoggard told Mike Hosking he knew of the concerns around delays before taking his current role. 

He admits seeing the processes and wait-times first-hand was an eye-opener. 

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Getting approval for new hort and egg products should be
about to speed up. Ministry of Regulations made eight sixteen
recommendations to MPI and the EPA to improve our current process.
Has included new time target, which hopefully will get you
through the backlog of applications, of which there are some.
Apparently some people have been waiting for five years. I'm
told Food Safety Minister Andrew Hoggard will there's Andrew morning.

Speaker 2 (00:20):
Good morning Mike.

Speaker 1 (00:21):
How is it possible to wait for five years for anything?

Speaker 2 (00:24):
A good question, and that's something hopefully we'll get on
top of. I think there's just been in similar situations,
and these are particularly with the EPA, where products have
just sat there, people are waiting and just massive amounts
of paperwork and uncertain as to what paperwork they've got
to produce and provide, and things keep going back and

(00:48):
forth and bit off a never ending circle.

Speaker 1 (00:50):
Is this an easy fix? In other words, when you
go in there with a bomb, blow it up, simplified,
it will be rectified? Or is it more complex than that?

Speaker 2 (00:58):
Look, there'll be so within these recommendations that are going forward.
Now there's some it's a good start. I've got more
that I'll be bringing forward for ACVM later in the
year or perhaps into next year. There's serve of working consultation.
It's going to happen before I can bring that, and
I believe kenn he's got the same for making improvements

(01:18):
around that has no act as well.

Speaker 1 (01:20):
Right, So, as you came in from the farm to
the cloistered environs of politics, did you know all this
as a man of the land or is this come
as a surprise to you on.

Speaker 2 (01:31):
You particular for the horticultural stuff there. I'd certainly heard
of the concerns around the time delays, but getting in
there and seeing it firsthand and seeing the processes and
how long thing to taking that was a bit of
an eye opener for sure.

Speaker 1 (01:47):
Okay, So it says two hundred and seventy two million
dollars in savings over twenty years, which is only thirteen
million dollars a year. Yes, you want to do it,
but it's hardly going to revolutionize the industry, is it.
I mean, is this actually a big problem?

Speaker 2 (01:58):
Well? Giving examples, so last year there was a potential
hold up or problem with bird repellents may seed and
this was just before I was about amaze and everyone
else was about to climber maze where there'd been a
ruling on the paperwork you had isn't good enough. You
have to go and get new paperwork, and it's going

(02:19):
to take this time. And that would have meant there
would have been no bird repellent to be able to
put in may seed anywhere around the country, and it
would have had huge impacts on you, not only my farm,
but every other farm that grows maize and so been.
Thankfully that didn't come about and that bird repellent was available.
But that's sort of an example of how actually holding

(02:41):
up one of these products can have a major detrimental
impact across the whole sector. You know that two seventy
two million is about for the cost to the providers
of the products. There's that cost that's hard to quantify
to the farmers of this country. Whereas if we can't
use chemicals of certain new technologies aren't available, it can

(03:02):
just make an absolute mess of our farming business.

Speaker 1 (03:04):
That's good stuff. Now, do you know anything about the
New Zealand Food Innovation Network signing a deal with the
Canadian Food Innovation Network.

Speaker 2 (03:12):
No, I don't, precisely I did visit them two weeks ago,
but we didn't talk about Canada. Ah.

Speaker 1 (03:18):
Interesting because they've signed a deal whereby we're going to
be able to get access to international markets, memory ending
of understanding, use their expertise to get access to international markets,
faster manufacturing knowledge, all of that sort of stuff. Whose
department would that be?

Speaker 2 (03:35):
Some of the stuff they operate and does come under.
So I was talking about with them around some of
the challenges they have with food safety rules and how
because they're kind of in it. You know, we've got
a system that's designed to put square pegs and square
holes and doesn't recognize innovation very well. And so you know,
I was talking to them and following up with them

(03:57):
around how what do we need to change in the
system to enable more innovation to occur?

Speaker 1 (04:05):
Interesting, well, chase them up on the Canadian thinkers. I'm
interested in that. By the way, Italians Italian Qi fruit,
you know anything about that?

Speaker 2 (04:12):
Well? I do know that Zesbrey do have license agreements
with growers and ly World.

Speaker 1 (04:20):
It's not that they because we got Zesbrey and they
said it's not them. So it's just these these rogue
Italians that are growing this dodgy fruit. You need to
be under the Andrew.

Speaker 2 (04:30):
Well, it's a free market and we allow people to
import to our countries so it's safe. I'm not the
Minister of food tastiness, just safety.

Speaker 1 (04:40):
Nice to talk to you, have a good I'm not
the Minister of food tastiness quite of the day, so fast.

Speaker 2 (04:46):
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