Latest / Best of Business / Katherine Rich: BusinessNZ CEO on the labelling regulations in New Zealand

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Katherine Rich: BusinessNZ CEO on the labelling regulations in New Zealand · Best of Business

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  Speaker 2: Right nixt cab off the old slashing of red tape.
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  Speaker 2: Rank is labeling laws. Currently there's around thirty laws requiring
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  Speaker 2: important goods to meet our packaging standards, essentially driving away
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  Speaker 2: competition ads cost of both business and consumers. Anyway, Catherine
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  Speaker 2: Rich's the Boss ad Business New zealand And is with us.
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  Speaker 2: Good morning, good morning. Of all the issues in your area,
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  Speaker 2: where does this labeling business fit? Do you think?
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  Speaker 3: Look, I know it sounds like a really dry topic,
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  Speaker 3: but it's a multi billion dollar issue for New Zealand.
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  Speaker 3: So many products require labels and it is time to
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  Speaker 3: look at the things that New Zealand expects companies to
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  Speaker 3: do and just test it, Just to look at what
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  Speaker 3: are we asking, what's important to have on a label
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  Speaker 3: and what's not Because so many things have to be
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  Speaker 3: repackaged or resticked for New Zealand, and in many cases
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  Speaker 3: it's completely unnecessary and could be done well. The information
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  Speaker 3: could be imparted by an E label or a QR
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  Speaker 3: code not on the sticker.
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  Speaker 2: All right, two claims yesterday, One will see more see
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  Speaker 2: the chemist warehouse employees a person to do nothing but
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  Speaker 2: check labels. Is that true? And if it is, would
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  Speaker 2: they be the only company? And why has it got
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  Speaker 2: this bad look?
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  Speaker 3: This is an issue for any company that markets something
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  Speaker 3: that requires a label. So it's not just pharmaceuticals. It's food,
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  Speaker 3: it's beer and wine, it's clothing, it's everything. And there
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  Speaker 3: are some very good reasons for labels, of course, things
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  Speaker 3: like warnings, hazards, allergens. But over a period of time,
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  Speaker 3: New Zealand has introduced some bespoke rules which require overstickering
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  Speaker 3: for reasons that aren't really necessary. There are lots of
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  Speaker 3: other legitimate labeling jurisdictions around the world. We should look
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  Speaker 3: towards greater mutual recognition. Wine's a good example. You might
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  Speaker 3: have noticed on if you're buying a bottle of French
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  Speaker 3: or Spanish wine, it might have an ugly white sticker
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  Speaker 3: on it in addition to its beautiful bottle. That's because
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  Speaker 3: New Zealand has some rules which the rest of the
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  Speaker 3: world doesn't follow. I think the ministry of regulation is
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  Speaker 3: don't do some important work. It is a multi billion
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  Speaker 3: dollar issue. It's not to take away information for consumers.
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  Speaker 3: It's just a test what should be on the label
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  Speaker 3: and what could be better delivered by a QR code
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  Speaker 3: or something online.
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  Speaker 2: Other claim yesterday was if you do it properly, you
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  Speaker 2: can lower the cost of a product, therefore the cost
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  Speaker 2: of living gets cheaper. True or not?
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  Speaker 3: Yes, that is true. There have been examples in New
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  Speaker 3: Zealand where even though we're a market the size of Melbourne,
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  Speaker 3: we ask companies to either repack or oversticker for to
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  Speaker 3: deliver information that could be delivered in another way. It
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  Speaker 3: does add cost because you've physically got to have someone
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  Speaker 3: over stickering, or in many cases you're asking a company
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  Speaker 3: to do a very short production run which is often
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  Speaker 3: uneconomical or ads cost. And the other issue is that
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  Speaker 3: many companies are not They're either making one of two decisions.
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  Speaker 3: One they're going to the cost of doing the three packaging,
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  Speaker 3: or two they're deciding not to come to our market
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  Speaker 3: at all. And during the time I ran the Pudent
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  Speaker 3: Grocery Council, I saw that a lot sometimes Medsafe or
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  Speaker 3: MPI would ask for a rule to be implemented and
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  Speaker 3: the company would just decide on not launching a New
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  Speaker 3: Zealand at or and that means less choice for consumers
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  Speaker 3: and not having the access to the latest innovation.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah all right, Katherine, go well, have a good weekend.
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  Speaker 2: Katherine Rich, Business New Zealand CEO.
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