Federated Farmers' Anders Crofoot to chair AHB and NAIT Stakeholder Council

Federated Farmers National Board member, Anders Crofoot, has been appointed to chair the Stakeholder Council that will oversee the merger process between the Animal Health Board (AHB) and the National Animal Identification & Tracing (NAIT) scheme.

"I am deeply humbled to chair what will be a significant development in New Zealand agriculture," says Anders Crofoot, Federated Farmers Board spokesperson on national identification & tracing.

“The Stakeholder Council is made up of representatives from industry as well as local and central government.  The council includes Beef + Lamb NZ, the Dairy Companies Association of New Zealand, DairyNZ, Deer Industry New Zealand, Meat Industry Association, New Zealand Deer Farmers Association, NZ Stock & Station Agents' Association, Local Government New Zealand, Ministry for Primary Industries and of course, Federated Farmers.

"Farmers will be keen to see the two organisations, NAIT and AHB, rolled into one at a governance level.  There will be some overlap while the process takes place but the aim of the Stakeholder Council is to speed this merger along.

"The new board to be formed from NAIT and the AHB will ultimately decide the structure of the merged entity. It will need to efficiently carry out its existing roles while having the flexibility to potentially take on new tasks beyond TB control and cattle and deer identification.

"Certainly, there is a lot of change coming up and merging NAIT and the AHB makes sense.  I am excited to be working with the Stakeholder Council to deliver for New Zealand's farmers," Mr Crofoot concluded.