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Operational Update

Backlog of work

There is a noticeable buildup in the applications queue at the present time. In July, as a result of the ‘clean up’ of applications undertaken by the Customer Service Team, the number of applications in the queue was around 90. At the moment this has increased to 180. However, this still compares favourably with early 1998 (500), early 1999 (230) and early this year (385).

There appear to be a couple of reasons for this. One is that so many applications are coming into the Group.

The other reason for the buildup of applications relates to the turnover of staff in the Group. Fortunately, the change in staff is less disruptive than it may seem in that a large percentage of the work of the Group continues to be handled by a number of external technical assessors. These people all work in excess of 40 hours a week and are extremely productive in terms of turnaround of assessments. ( In the last two months approvals going out have actually outstripped applications coming in – see chart below).

The Group has made some alterations to reduce the impact of staff changes on applicants. The Customer Service Team will be taking the lead in a number of areas – Class Determinations, Provisional Licences and Low Risk applications will be handled primarily by them with limited technical input as required. Some of the less technical type B and C applications will also be managed by the Customer Service Team in order to cut the technical ‘queue time’ and get these through the system as quickly as possible.

Urgent applications

We have regular requests from applicants to ‘fast track’ their applications for a variety of reasons. The ACVM Group has no way to judge the relative importance of one application against the other so they are dealt with on a strict ‘first come first served’ basis. (The single exception to this occurred when the Minister gave his approval to fast track the first few varroa mite control products.)

We would take this opportunity to remind applicants that the best way of ensuring a quick passage through the registration process is to have a complete application – each time we have to go back to an applicant for further information, the application goes to the back of the queue being managed by the technical assessor.

A number of experienced consultants can assist in checking applications before they come into the system. There is a list on the website and the ACVM Group can also advise on which of the consultants is experienced in the area covered by an application.

Customer visits to the ACVM Group

Just a reminder that if you request a meeting with ACVM Group staff regarding an application, in most cases there will be a charge made for the Group time. While we welcome these visits, they take technical staff away from doing the vital assessment work for which we recover costs.

Where the ACVM Group organises client visits, no charge is made for time providing an agenda is agreed beforehand. We may review this in the new year depending on the subjects covered at meetings.

Pukekohe field visit

Jonathan Taylor (National Manager ACVM Policy and Standards) and Debbie Morris (Director ACVM Group) were both part of an ‘officials field trip’ to Pukekohe early in November. The group consisted of other officials from MAF Food (Tim Knox and Kay Shapland from the Dairy and Plants Group), ERMA New Zealand, Ministry for the Environment, Ministry of Health, Foundation for Science and Technology, and Trade New Zealand. The visit, which was extremely well organised by VegFed personnel, was to familiarise government officials with a range of vegetable growers and the issues facing each of them.

The visit started at KPH Produce – a huge hothouse (4.5 hectares and soon to be doubled!) and packhouse operation supplying tomatoes, peppers, lettuces and cucumbers for the local and export markets. We then went to Balle Brothers (specialising in onions and potatoes) with an even larger packhouse operation. After lunch we visited two smaller properties (belonging to John Sutherland and Peter Maxwell) growing a range of products including parsley and lettuce.

It was a real eye opener to see the initiatives being put into place at a range of different sites and to understand the potential for legislation changes to impact strongly at the grass roots level. From the ACVM Group point of view, the visit highlighted the need to finalise proposals for plant compounds under the ACVM Act to enable the continuation of ‘outside conditions’ use, especially for minor crops. It was very obvious that the lack of clarity in this area is causing undue concern. Watch this space.