Regulation Minister David Seymour, Environment Minister Penny Simmonds and Food Safety Minister Andrew Hoggard have announced a regulatory sector review on the approval process for new agricultural and horticultural products.
“Red tape stops farmers and growers from getting access to products that have been approved by other OECD countries. It can take nine years and wrangling government agencies to get approval here,” Seymour said.
“Farmers overseas are using innovative technologies that we don’t have access to that make animals emit less methane, make fruit and vegetable plants grow faster, and control pests and diseases with less environmental harm.
“If we don’t remove these barriers to productivity, we will fall behind our global competitors when we need to grow the economy through trade.”
Seymour told the Farmers Weekly In Focus podcast that the review would target the key things stifling productivity and innovation.
“What are your experiences and your problems? [We’ll] also talk to the importers, because they are the main regulated party, [and ask] well, why is it so hard?
“Why don’t we have the same stuff that Australian or Canadian or French farmers have? I mean, we can’t be worse than France.”
He said sometimes regulations are solving a problem that don’t exist.
“One of the critical questions you ask is this – is there actually a problem here? Are people going to solve the problem for themselves? Because rural people all over the world have a very proud history of solving problems for themselves.
“I hope by the end of this, New Zealand farmers will be able to get the same tools as their competitors globally, as fast, if not faster, and as good, if not better.
“And that’s got to be the goal. Because it’s hard enough being stuck down here – longer shipping times, smaller market size, all sorts of challenges. We don’t need the government to creating extra hurdles.”
Seymour said the review will take a year or so, with the first step being the setting of terms of reference.
