Labour ministers are fast developing a reputation for shooting off at the mouth and getting things wrong as a result. Jacinda Ardern has attacked two lowly paid workers as she seeks to shift blame from lackadaisical border controls. The Police Minister blamed gangs rather than her own department for the escalation in gun violence and now Stuart Nash is mouthing off about live animal exports:
Nash was pretty emphatic in his statement that New Zealand was the only country conducting live animal exports.
He was of course wrong.
The following list from Wikipedia is of countries with live animal exports. Data is for 2019, in millions of United States dollars, as reported by International Trade Centre. Currently the top twenty countries are listed.
| # | Country | Value | Main exports |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 |  France | 2,400 | Cattle, Horse, Pig, Chicken and Bovine |
| 2 |  Netherlands | 2,297 | Pig, Horse, Chicken and Cattle |
| 3 |  Denmark | 1,547 | Pig, Cattle, Chicken and Horse |
| 4 |  Germany | 1,504 | Chicken, Cattle, Horses, Pig and Turkey |
| 5 |  Canada | 1,492 | Cattle, Pig, Horse, Bison and Turkey |
| 6 |  Australia | 1,486 | Cattle, Horse and Sheep |
| 7 |  United States | 1,053 | Chicken, Horse and Cattle |
| 8 |  Mexico | 831 | Cattle, Bovine and Horse |
| 9 |  Spain | 796 | Cattle, Pig, Sheep and Chicken |
| 10 |  Belgium | 753 | Pig, Cattle, Chicken and Insects |
| 11 |  United Kingdom | 726 | Horse, Chicken, Sheep and Turkey |
| 12 |  Hong Kong | 570 | Horse and Reptiles |
| 13 |  China | 509 | Pig, Bovine, Primates and Reptiles |
| 14 |  Ireland | 509 | Horse, Cattle and Pig |
| 15 |  Sudan | 502 | Sheep, Bovine, Goat and Camel |
| 16 |  Romania | 489 | Sheep, Cattle, Chicken and Bovine |
| 17 |  Hungary | 469 | Cattle, Chicken, Sheep and Pig |
| 18 |  Brazil | 456 | Cattle, Chicken and Bovine |
| 19 |  Thailand | 381 | Cattle, Pig and Bison |
| 20 |  Czech Republic | 376 | Cattle, Pig, Chicken, Goose and Turkey |
So, contrary to Stuart Nash’s emphatic claims that New Zealand was the ONLY country utilising live animal exports, the fact is we are not alone and, worse for the minister, we aren’t even in the top 20 countries doing so.
This is just going to hand even more market share to Australia.
Yet again this government has chosen to throw an industry under their virtue signalling bus.
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