A busy year lies ahead.

Predictions are a risky business. Just ask any commentator who has attempted to pick how the Black Caps or the mercurial Mr Winston Peters will perform on any given day.

However, there are four broad issues the Food and Grocery Council (FGC) considers will be crucial for the FMCG sector this year.

One of the new Government’s first acts will be to complete a review of last year’s Maui gas pipeline failure. That leak had a tremendous impact on a number of significant businesses – including several FGC members – and we came perilously close to seeing staple foods like bread and cereal off the shelves in Auckland. The Government’s review will concentrate on how to avoid a repeat of the problem and will also spur affected companies, particularly manufacturers, to consider how they can better deal with their current dependency on one aging gas pipeline.

Overall, Ministers, government agencies and officials and the power companies dealt with the crisis relatively well. However, the delay in having specific food and drink manufacturers classified as essential services reinforced the need for the Food and Grocery Council to keep working to raise the profile of the FMCG industry with our politicians and the public. After all, we are a $15 billion industry employing nearly 150,000 New Zealanders. 2012 will see us continue and intensify that work.

Shortly after the election, the Ministerial Council on Food Regulation for Australia and New Zealand considered its response to the Blewett Review on Food Labelling Policy and the Health Claims Standard. Ministers correctly rejected the headline traffic light system proposed by the review. Instead, they agreed that a universal front-of-package labelling system was needed and set an ambitious timeline for its development and introduction.

Officials have been tasked to deliver a comprehensive report within six months and an agreed labelling system within one year. While we consider that to be a deeply ambitious schedule, particularly when further research will almost certainly be needed, we are prepared to work with officials to ensure there is a much broader discussion on needs, enhancements and evidence relating to labelling. This dialogue is needed before there are any significant changes which may create unnecessary compliance costs for producers.

There is a reason no country in the world has yet cracked the vexed issue of food labelling. Put simply, it is complicated. It is all too easy to rush in with a heavy handed scheme which creates high costs for the food industry without providing meaningful information to consumers. Food labelling issues will take up a lot of the industry’s attention this year.

Sadly, we will see a continuation of activist groups making hysterical claims and unfairly scapegoating local businesses. This will continue because those groups know they can raise their media profile and bring in more donations, even when their claims are thoroughly disproved. The company names will change, but the themes will remain the same. It is a very successful formula which extracts more donations out of our New Zealand than many other countries, which are the more appropriate target.

Finally, Hon John Banks has been appointed as the Minister for Regulatory Review. The Council congratulates him on his appointment and will look to work with him to help reduce the red tape and compliance which currently occupies too much of our members’ time. John is a successful businessman and he knows from his own experience how businesses need to be freed up to become more productive to ensure a strong future for the industry and the people who work in it.

It certainly looks like another busy year.