Flags are topical at the moment. Our regional FLAG in the Bay of Plenty is the ‘Freight and Logistics Action Group’, a forum that brings together all the key players from across the BOP logistics sector (road, rail, port, shipping, importers, post-harvest, exporters etc.) to take action together to support economic growth in the region.

FLAG’s leadership has sought to raise awareness and understanding of biosecurity and approached KVH to assist with this. Last week KVH led a workshop with FLAG members on ‘logistics implications of a biosecurity event’. This included exploring potential impacts and scenarios should we experience a medium or large scale biosecurity event in the BOP, and how the logistics sector can better prepare for this.

The logistics sector in the BOP employs more than 4000 full time staff who cart biosecurity risk goods around the region and country, and have a critical role to play in looking out for and reporting potential biosecurity risks. In an event such as a fruit fly incursion, the logistics sector has a critical role to play – critical to our ability to export.

KVH thanks Zespri, Ministry for Primary Industries and Forest Owners Association staff who also contributed to the workshop, and acknowledges the proactive approach the BOP logistics sector is taking to lift its focus on biosecurity.

While this particular workshop had a regional focus, it has elevated wider opportunity for MPI and GIA partners to work more closely with the freight and logistics sector at a national level.