Source: Biosecurity Business Pledge
The significance of biosecurity to the New Zealand economy and the business community is underscored by its top priority ranking for eleven years straight in the KPMG agribusiness agenda. With the high degree of connectivity between New Zealand businesses, it is a risk that commands active governance and management at all top tables.
Therefore today, to aid discussion in New Zealand’s boardrooms and senior leadership tables, the Biosecurity Business Pledge launched two new guidance documents.
The ‘CEO Guide to Biosecurity’ and ‘Biosecurity Considerations for Boards’ were developed by Pledge signatory organisations in consultation with a cross-section of Pledge chief executives and governors.
The Governance guide is endorsed by Peter McBride, Chairman of Fonterra Co-operative Group Ltd and former Chair of Zespri. At today’s launch, he highlighted the crucial role of boards and directors in driving biosecurity excellence to ensure the long-term sustainability of their organisations, industries and the economy.
“Our role in ensuring biosecurity risk is managed and embedded into an organisation’s culture has never been more vital than now. If we are to protect our primary sectors and maintain a strong reputation for the quality of our food and fibre exports, then board leadership is essential.”
Peter McBride emphasised that biosecurity should also be considered an equal part of good business risk management for corporate governors alongside their approach to health and safety at work, and food safety, with potentially similar levels of legal liability for companies and individual directors.
James Trevelyan, Managing Director and CEO of Trevelyan’s, welcomed the CEO guidance as helping businesses identify and operationalise their mitigating responses to their key biosecurity risks and practices.
“In New Zealand, the risk of unwanted pests (plant or animal) and diseases could devastate individual businesses and sectors, our economy, our environment, and even our way of life. Therefore, and work with MPI/Biosecurity New Zealand to understand and mitigate the risk.”
Anna Cassels-Brown, General Manager Operations for Auckland Airport, said “Reducing operational risk and safeguarding business continuity is a critical motivator for senior teams to continue to focus on biosecurity. This guidance will support all executives who manage operational risk, regardless of whether they have any technical biosecurity experience.”
The Business Biosecurity Pledge is a network of almost 250 business sector organisations that have committed to being an active part of New Zealand’s biosecurity team of all New Zealanders by integrating proactive biosecurity practices into their operations and supply chains. The Pledge functions as a forum for members to engage and collaborate in ways that build collective biosecurity capability.
Biosecurity Business Pledge Executive Director Debbie Teale said the launch of the guidelines was a significant milestone for the Pledge initiative.
“The Pledge was established in recognition of the significant costs associated with unwanted pests and diseases, that Biosecurity prevention will always be better than a cure and that we all benefit from working together to foster better outcomes.”
“Pledge members identified biosecurity guidance for senior executives and corporate directors as a gap in the toolkit of many businesses. We effectively pooled our expertise to develop and supply guidance for all businesses large and small.”
Ultimately this will support earlier and more effective biosecurity risk mitigations and help prevent unnecessary costs and disruptions for businesses, communities and the broader economy due to unwanted incursions of pests and diseases.
Background to the Biosecurity Business Pledge
Developed by business, in partnership with Biosecurity New Zealand, to support better biosecurity outcomes.
The Pledge recognises:
– The role of biosecurity in underpinning our economy, environment, and way of life
– The interconnected nature of biosecurity – what happens in one business can have significant flow-on impacts for others
– The importance of a proactive approach
– That awareness is the starting point for action
The Pledge was initiated by a group of business associations CEOs and is steered by the Dairy Companies Association of New Zealand, with other steering group members being the Meat Industry Association, Council of Cargo Owners, Customs Brokers and Freight Forwarders Association, Horticulture New Zealand, Kiwifruit Vine Health, Federated Farmers, Auckland Airport, Norwood, and with strong support from Biosecurity New Zealand.
This is the first initiative of its kind to create a pre-competitive network across the business community to:
– Better equip businesses with the knowledge and tools needed for effective biosecurity risk management; and
– Enhance the two-way flow of information between the business community and government to strengthen New Zealand’s biosecurity system.
Biosecurity Business Pledge members initiated a programme of activity to embed biosecurity as a critical foundation within New Zealand business by ensuring businesses have enhanced knowledge and tools, including resources. The new guidance documents launched today are part of this work programme.
The Pledge’s membership is becoming increasingly broad and diverse. Large and small businesses are represented in food and fibre production and supply chains across the primary sector. There are logistics and freight forwarders, retailers, other importers and exporters and our ports where passengers and cargo arrive in the country. A complete list of member companies can be seen here.
Members are importing from and exporting to all corners of the world. Membership now sits at almost 250 businesses and organisations and is increasingly getting broader than its primary sector foundational base.
Many are leading brands and carry significant risks to their businesses should an unwanted exotic pest or disease arrive in the country – or an endemic pest or disease be transmitted from another site or location within New Zealand.
