An on-the-ground audit of Indonesia's palm kernel supply chain shows it is meeting New Zealand's strict biosecurity requirements for foot and mouth disease, MPI says.
MPI says Indonesia is meeting New Zealand's strict biosecurity requirements for foot and mouth disease in relation to its exports of palm kernel. Photo: 123rf
The livestock disease was discovered in Indonesia in May and this week cases were confirmed in Bali.
New Zealand has never had an outbreak of the highly contagious and devastating disease - that affects animals like sheep, cattle, pigs, goats, deer, and alpacas.
But this week Biosecurity New Zealand sent representatives to Indonesia to check the palm kernel supply chain in light of the outbreak there.
Biosecurity deputy director general Stuart Anderson said the risk of the product carrying the disease back to New Zealand was low, due to the heat processors used to produce it and the strict standards products imported from Indonesia were subjected to.
"Our people visited sites across the country, including a mix of production, storage and loading facilities," he said.
"Our auditors were able to see all stages of supply chain and found that suppliers are meeting our strict import health standards.
"We did a virtual audit of Indonesia's PKE (palm kernel expeller) supply chain last year and it showed producers were following our import health standards, but we wanted to carry out an on-the-ground-audit as an extra layer of assurance."
Anderson said Biosecurity New Zealand was closely monitoring the outbreak in Indonesia and was working with its Australian counterparts - who were becoming increasingly concerned about the disease, due to the high number of Australians visiting Bali.
"We've provided personal protective equipment to Indonesia to conduct biosecurity measures, disinfectant, backpack sprayers and other tools to help on the ground. We've offered our technical expertise as well," he said.
He said New Zealand's front-line border measures were being regularly reassessed in light of the outbreak.
Health workers give vaccinations to livestock to prevent the spread of foot-and-mouth disease (FMD) in Bogor region, West Java, Indonesia. Photo: SURYA FACHRIZAL APRIANUS
"Our front-line staff at the border are paying close attention to goods and any travellers arriving in the country with Indonesia as their point of departure."
"Our multi-layered biosecurity system includes risk assessment, visual inspections, X-ray screening, scanning technology, and detector dogs to prevent risk goods from being carried into New Zealand by travellers or arriving by mail. All shipping containers and imported goods are assessed for biosecurity risk."