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Freighter full of Malaysian palm feed turned away from New Zealand

Xinhua, October 18, 2016 Adjust font size:

A ship carrying 23,000 tonnes of a controversial palm feed for cattle has been refused entry to New Zealand after being anchored offshore for more than a month.

The Ministry for Primary Industries (MPI) said Tuesday that the MV Molat was prohibited from unloading its cargo of palm kernel expeller (PKE) in New Zealand as it posed a biosecurity risk.

The MV Molat arrived at the eastern North Island port of Tauranga on Sept. 6, but was stopped its entry after finding some of its cargo had come from an unregistered PKE facility in Malaysia, MPI officials said.

An application from the importer to have the PKE treated in New Zealand had been turned down, MPI border clearance services director Steve Gilbert said in a statement.

"We spent a lot of time assessing whether there was a solution that would meet biosecurity requirements, but unfortunately nothing ticks all the boxes in terms of mitigating the risk of pests and diseases entering New Zealand," said Gilbert.

"My decision ensures that potentially contaminated PKE will not enter New Zealand."

MPI had strict biosecurity requirements for importing PKE, which included heat processing to least 85 degrees and that foreign facilities be approved and regularly audited by the exporting country.

PKE is a by-product of the palm oil industry and is used as a supplementary animal feed, mostly by the dairy industry.

New Zealand imported a record 1.95 million tonnes of PKE in the year to June 2015. Endit