Ministry for Primary Industries (MPI)

The team at Te Uru Rākau – New Zealand Forest Service are utilising cutting-edge drone technology to enhance monitoring and inspection of tree plantings. Here's how drones are making a difference: 🌲 Precision Monitoring: Drones provide high-resolution imagery, enabling us to assess tree health and growth with pinpoint accuracy. 🌲 Time Efficiency: Covering vast areas quickly, drones save countless hours compared to traditional ground inspections. 🌲 Cost-Effective: Reducing the need for extensive manpower and equipment, drones offer a more economical way to monitor our plantings. 🌲 Environmental Impact: By minimising the need for vehicle use, drones help reduce our carbon footprint. 🌲 Accessibility: Drones can easily reach remote or difficult terrains, ensuring every tree is accounted for. These benefits wouldn’t be possible without the team of drone operators, who aren’t just expert pilots. They have a deep understanding of forestry and ecology – assessing tree health, understanding growth patterns and tree identification – along with monitoring real time data and advanced data analysis skills. To find out how our drone operators and forestry advisors can assist you in achieving your reforestation goals, visit: https://lnkd.in/guhNx9wc

As a country we love our companion animals. About two thirds of New Zealand homes have at least one animal, such as a dog, cat, or bird 🐶🐱🦜 However, in emergencies, people are often reluctant to evacuate if they are not able to take their pets. This can put their lives in danger and those of emergency responders. MPI is leading a national effort to increase the number of people trained to care for and handle companion animals during civil defence emergencies. We’re partnering with the International Fund for Animal Welfare ifaw to deliver training workshops across the country to help grow skills and capacity among councils, government agencies, zoos, wildlife parks, and iwi organisations. The workshops kicked off in Wellington earlier this month, with a glowing response from attendees who are now feeling more confident and skilled to handle our companion animals during emergencies 🙌

We all love an office with a view 🤩. Verification Services Animal Product Officer (APOs) Amee might have one of the best MPI has to offer. APO’s are responsible for overseeing the monitoring and compliance of commercial bivalve shellfish growing areas, for example mussel farms. As part of this they monitor environmental conditions such as the amount of rainfall, river flow or drop in salinity in the seawater. Runoff from the land can impact these filter feeders as they can accumulate harmful bacteria or viruses. The APOs can close areas where there is evidence of food safety risk. On this particularly stunning Canterbury afternoon, Amee’s office took to the skies for a surveillance flight over Banks Peninsula. The area had been closed due to amount of rainfall in the previous days reaching the threshold and surveillance flight need happen before the growing areas could reopen. The conditions couldn’t have been better, and we were rewarded with these pics. 📷: By Rachael – New Zealand Food Safety, Senior Adviser Engagement – who was more the happy to tag-a-long for the ride.

Aotearoa New Zealand has one of the strongest biosecurity systems in the world, and every New Zealander has an important role in protecting our country from unwanted pests and diseases. New Zealand Biosecurity Institute’s Biosecurity Week – which kicked off yesterday – acknowledges the important mahi being done by individuals, communities, councils and mana whenua around the motu to support our biosecurity system. From Biosecurity New Zealand, a big thank you 👏 to all our biosecurity champions for your efforts in helping protect our unique environment, our economy and our special Kiwi way of life. There are many ways you can play your part: ✈️ by declaring or disposing of risk items when you return from overseas, 🛍️ being aware when online shopping and buying plants and seeds locally, 🌼 looking after your garden and trapping pests in your backyard, 🐛 being on the lookout for exotic pests and diseases and reporting them to us on 0800 80 99 66 Let’s keep up the good work! 💚

Ministry for the Environment | Manatū mō te Taiao are asking for your feedback on the proposed second Emissions Reduction plan. There are several events and hui being held during the consultation period, here’s a couple for our food and fibre sector: 🐄 Agricultural workshop, Friday, 26 July, 1:30 – 3:30pm. 🌲 Forestry workshop, Wednesday, 31 July, 10:30am – 12:30pm. To register for the workshops and have your say, visit: https://lnkd.in/exYjRQrz

New Zealand Food Safety is supporting Granarolo New Zealand Ltd in its recall of a specific batch of its Ghiotti brand Mozzarella Buffalo, Ghiotti brand Mozzarella Cherry, and Ghiotti brand Mozzarella Fior Di Latte due to the products being labelled with an incorrect Use-By date. The products are labelled 17/07/25, whereas it should have read 17/07/24. Affected are: Ghiotti brand Mozzarella Buffalo (125g) Ghiotti brand Mozzarella Buffalo (200g) Ghiotti brand Mozzarella Cherry (200g) Ghiotti brand Mozzarella Fior Di Latte (100g) Ghiotti brand Mozzarella Fior Di Latte (200g) The affected products are sold at selected Fresh Choice, Gilmours, New World, Pak'n Save and Woolworths stores throughout New Zealand. Full details can be found at https://bit.ly/3Y8xlxk

While working at Auckland International Airport, detector dog Gizmo and handler Tim made a hefty find, that shallot pass through the border. A passenger travelling from Australia was found to be in possession of more than 100 undeclared shallots, weighing in at a whopping 3kg! 🧅🧅🧅 Gizmo indicated on the bag straight away, knowing that the odour represented a biosecurity risk. When asked why they did not declare the shallots, the passenger stated, “I thought it was fine, because I was going to use them for cooking”. While Gizmo posed for his photo op 📸, the passenger was issued with a $400 fine for not declaring her cooking ingredients. Amazing work, Tim and Gizmo!

The second capital investment round of the Wood Processing Growth Fund’s Accelerator programme is now open. 🌳🌳 The WPGF has three streams: 🌲 Accelerator – up to $33 million in loans or equity finance to co-fund capital investment in new capacity and improvements that increase onshore wood processing capacity, productivity and improve competitiveness 🌲 Catalyst – up to $2 million per year in conditional grants to support feasibility studies and related pre-capital activities for wood processing projects 🌲 Te Kōtuku – up to $500,000 per year in conditional grants to help grow small-scale processors of non-pine timber and increase commercial use of alternative species For further information, and on how to apply, see https://bit.ly/3Y2qLZt 📅 Applications must be received by 26 August 2024.

From paddock to parliament – meet Jordi Hoult. Jordi is currently a Senior Advisor for Food Regulation Performance with New Zealand Food Safety and one of MPI’s talented young wahine. Jordi was a finalist for the Emerging Leader Award at this year’s Primary Industry Awards – held earlier this month – and shortlisted for the 2024 Zanda McDonald Award. Both awards recognise young primary sector leaders who demonstrate commitment, passion and leadership in their chosen career. “It was an honour to be selected as a finalist for the Emerging Leader Award. I aim for authentic and transparent leadership that brings social and economic value to the agrifood sector. Trust in the public sector is often varied, so this is a recognition of many of the individuals who quietly make positive change for Aotearoa.” Jordi’s primary sector career journey has been varied and interesting. She initially trained as a veterinarian and recently added a Master’s in Business Administration to her qualifications. Alongside her work at MPI, Jordi is also an active volunteer. She mentors several programmes, and sits on several committees for the New Zealand Veterinary Association. “I’ve lived and worked from Southland to Northland, and quite literally worked from paddock – as a vet and verifier – to parliament, during a month-long stint as Private Secretary to the Minister for Food Safety last year.” Jordi’s current role involves performance management and system monitoring within Food Regulation. “This means I get to work across the beginning stages of a wide variety of potential projects and work items, investigating, scoping, and prioritising work for the directorate. “I also provide technical expertise in a wide variety of animal product sectors, as well as interconnectivity between various acts where functions exist across MPI business units. In short, I’m a go-to person for finding resources and people!” One of Jordi’s passion projects while working at MPI have been micro-abattoirs. “It’s an emerging sector in New Zealand that seeks to fill the niche between home kill and export meat works. “These are often driven by 1) producing high-end meat/cuts, 2) providing affordable meat to communities, and 3) social licence initiatives, including animal welfare, sustainability, and circular economies”. Well done, Jordi 👏 we can’t wait to see what you do next.

We have a new superstar on the job! 🌟 Meet Ozark. He came to us from a farm with no previous experience as a detector dog. Originally called Ozzy – we already have an Ozzy in our kennels – he got a new name to start his new life as a Biosecurity New Zealand detector dog. After passing his training with flying colours, Ozark was paired with handler Jess, who couldn’t have been happier with her new partner. They obviously make a great team because within their first few days together, Ozark busted some massive biosecurity risks - including these big bags of beans, a packed lunch consisting of an egg, grapes and chicken nuggets, kilograms worth of sausages, bananas, and a bag packed full of chicken jerky … just to name a few. All these finds were undeclared and disposed of. A few warnings were handed out, along with a bunch of $400 infringements. Remember to be aware of what you’re packing and to always declare items you’re not sure about! We look forward to seeing what else Ozark and Jess find in the future. Good work, team 🙌