Ravensdown imported its first Southland bound shipment of palm kernel extract (PKE) into South Port yesterday, with a load of 29,000 tonnes from East Malaysia.
PKE is a by-product of the palm oil industry in Malaysia and Indonesia, and is used in the dairy industry as a supplmentary stock feed.
Ravensdown general manager of supply Andrew Grundy said the company had been importing PKE into New Zealand for only six months, and its first shipment into Bluff was driven by shareholder demand in the region.
Mr Grundy said 8000 to 10,000 tonne of the PKE shipment would be unloaded from the Captain Corelli and stored at Bluff for the Southland market. The Captain Corelli would carry the remaining PKE to Ravensdown's stores in Timaru and Northland.
Ravensdown would continue to import PKE into Southland according to demand, he said.
"If the uptake's strong there'll be more and more shipments."
In April, Green Party co-leader Russel Norman said the rise in imports of PKE would have "huge" implications for New Zealand's "clean and green brand".
Mr Norman said plantation owners in Malaysia and Indonesia were "knocking down" rainforests to meet an increased demand for palm kernel.
A Ravensdown spokesperson said the company sourced its PKE from Eastern Malaysia, where palm oil had been produced from plantations for 30 years.
Indonesia was the predominant area where new plantation development and jungle deforestation had occurred, the spokeperson said.
Winton Stock Feed director Nelson Lindsay said his company had been importing PKE from Malaysia and Indonesia into Southland for a number of years.
However, Mr Lindsay did not want to comment on the impacts of the palm oil industry in South East Asia.
Southland Federated Farmers grain and seed chairman John Gardyne said PKE imports were a "necessary evil" at a time when supplementary stock feed supplies were low.
Mr Gardyne said the impact of palm oil production on rainforest was a concern, but it was being used to gain "political mileage".
Dairy farmers were caught "between a rock and a hard place", he said, with grain prices at around $400 to $500 a tonne, while PKE could be sourced for under $400 a tonne.
However, Mr Gardyne said the handling of PKE shipments may pose a biosecurity risk.
"It's just like (importing) dirt from Indonesia," he said.
"It's a high risk situation."
Information supplied by MAF Biosecurity New Zealand, states that PKE imports must be phytosanitary certified, and the exporting country must confirm MAF standards have been met to eliminate any chance of disease being present.
The exporter must declare the extract has been made in a facility dedicated to plant based meals and oils, and that no other animal rations are made there, and that it has not been exposed to any source of animal contamination before processing.
The PKE must also be heat processed to a core temperature of at least 85°C, for at least five minutes, and must have been kept secure from possible sources of contamination before and during export. The PKE must then be inspected on arrival.
Southland Federated Farmers dairy chairman Ron Pemberton agreed with Mr Gardyne that biosecurity was a concern.
"You just hope that border patrol are doing their job."
