Agri-Food Field Notes August 2024

Officials in Southeastern Europe are working to contain an outbreak of the sheep and goat virus, Peste des Petits Ruminants (PPR) which was detected in early July. Greek authorities have already quarantined and preventively culled over 10,000 sheep while Bulgaria are disinfecting vehicles and implementing a compulsory PCR testing for all animals entering the country.

The PPR virus is deadly to livestock, killing up to 70% of infected animals. The virus was first detected in the European Union in 2018 where authorities quickly locked down several villages and culled 2,000 livestock which contained the epidemic.. 

• Lamb and beef prices have quickly increased to levels well above seasonal averages due to a shortage of finished livestock. In the last month, procurement pressures have caused increases in lamb slaughter prices of 40- 45c per kg and cattle slaughter prices of 25-75c per kg
• New Zealand Cabinet has decided to opt out of the joint Australia-New Zealand standards on infant formula labelling after their review request was denied. The standard restricts the amount of promotional material on packaging. Instead, New Zealand will implement its own standard over the next five years.
• A new nutrient management decision making tool was launched for the vegetable farming industry. The Sustainable Vegetable Systems tool integrates nitrogen planning with soil testing to provide growers with real-time data to help meet sustainability and regulatory requirements.
• Northland's port company is appealing a decision to refuse consent for a major expansion. The 12-hectare reclamation and 250-metre wharf extension were rejected due to adverse effects on the cultural values of tāngata whenua and the impact on public access to the coast. 

• The United States Department of Agriculture has allocated an additional US $300 million (NZ $ 494 million) to help grow export markets for food producers. The US $1.2 billion (NZ $2 billion) Regional Agricultural Promotion Programme established last October funds market development projects in regions including Africa, Latin America and Asia.
• American plant-based company, Impossible Foods, has opened its first brick and mortar foodservice concept at the XMarket Food Hall in Chicago. “Impossible Quality Meats” is open for a limited time and will bring together its beef, chicken and pork portfolio through a range of menu items.

FAR puts AI at growers’ fingertips [9 August, Farmers Weekly]

The Foundation for Arable Research (FAR) has introduced a new Artificial Intelligence (AI) tool, Ask FAR, to help growers search and summarise the information available on their website about growing and harvesting different crops. This tool is a unique application in New Zealand and will provide users with summarised information on commonly asked questions, saving farmers from having to digest and interpret multiple sources of information.  Ask FAR aims to simplify the search process and only considers information from the FAR website to ensure the answers are based on credible and independent New Zealand research.