News

More value at risk in New Zealand from invasive species

The economic cost of pests to New Zealand has increased over the past decade due to the higher value of primary sector production in the country.

That’s a major finding of a technical paper completed by Nimmo-Bell & Associates that is now available on the Ministry of Primary Industries (MPI) website.

Read the report here.

Nimmo-Bell, a division of Prime Consulting International, was contracted by MPI to update an original report, released in 2009, which estimated defensive expenditure by Government agencies and the private sector in response to invasive pests and weeds.

Read the project background here.

It also estimated productivity losses to the private sector from invasive species.

Nimmo-Bell Director Michael Yap said the primary objective of the updated report was to compare a 2008 baseline with updated 2020 figures in order to track changes over the last 12 years.

A secondary objective was to improve accuracy and coverage of pest costs estimates from additional sources of data and research or new approaches.

Nimmo-Bell was involved in establishing the baseline in 2008.

Mr Yap says the updated report shows there is more value at risk in New Zealand from invasive species.

The paper estimates the total economic costs of pests to New Zealand to be $9.2 billion in 2019/20 – 2.9% of GDP.

The total economic value of pests in the 2009 report was $4.2 billion – 1.9% of GDP.

Prime Consulting International has a history of contributing to improved biosecurity in New Zealand.

In 2002, the company was contracted by the former Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry to undertake a comprehensive review of New Zealand’s biosecurity surveillance programmes.

Read more about that work here.