Baby #milk companies blast ministry

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The Ministry for Primary Industries is under fire, over the way it’s handled strict new food safety regulations in China.
 
The rules have been in the pipeline since before the Fonterra botulism scare. They take effect in a week.
 
But some manufacturers and exporters say they only heard about them yesterday.
 
Marco Marinkovic at Kiwi Milk Nutrition says the company waited months for a 30-minute video conference, but it’s failed to answer a lot of questions.
 
«This meeting is absolutely critical and they only gave us 30 minutes and they cut us off and we’ve got to go sort it out later on. Pretty poor management basically. If these guys were running a business they would have been fired by now.
 
Mr Marinkovic says his company is prepared, but most won’t be ready when the new rules come in at the end of next week.
 
«We’re talking about feeding babies, so nobody wants to produce stuff that’s actually going to hurt babies. what this audit says to me is that New Zealand standards have failed.»
 
Michael Barnett of the Infant Formula Exporters Association says 12 out of 13 firms have failed initial audits, and smaller exporters could be in trouble.
 
«I think the fact that the Chinese is after a closer relationship between the manufacturer and the brand is something that’s going to be difficult for many exporters to comply with.
 
He says it’ll be tough to meet the new standards, although he understands the need for them.
 
«I think the China market has overreacted. But nevertheless you can see why they would need to overreact when you see some of the incidents that they’ve had to deal with in their supply chain over the last 12 months.»
 
Source: Farming Show

Mirá También

Así lo expresó Domingo Possetto, secretario de la seccional Rafaela, quien además, afirmó que a los productores «habitualmente los ignoran los gobiernos». Además, reconoció la labor de los empresarios de las firmas locales y aseguró que están «esperanzados» con la negociación entre SanCor y Adecoagro.

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