WITH a plethora of forms to fill in, moving to a national framework and electronic forms would make sense, according to Victorian Livestock Exchange CEO Wayne Osborne.
He agrees there has been a slow take-up of the new 0413 National Vendor Declaration (NVD) form.
"Last year we undertook some proactive steps to get the message out to our vendors," Mr Osborne said.
"Our international markets get very confused when you produce different documents - it undermines confidence.
"I would say, generally speaking, there's an understanding of why change happened. But it's affecting some caught out - particularly the farmer who only sells once a year and older farmers who aren't very computer literate.
"The agents have been proactive and ensuring everyone's all ready to go."
Mr Osborne said the supply chain needed bringing into the 21st century and a comprehensive assessment of what export customers want, will benefit Australian farmers.
He believes a national electronic form incorporating the animal health statement (AHS) would be better.
He pointed out how confusing some of the forms are outside of Australia and recommends a format that enables the customer to easily access the information relevant to them.
"You have to provide an NVD and the export abattoirs want the most up-to-date NVD," Mr Osborne said.
"EU accreditation and the US market for pasture-fed beef are good examples - they want to know about antibiotics only and they don't like all the other questions.
"What we need is an electronic form that can be emailed along the supply chain and the customer at the end gets the most relevant information for them," he said.
"We don't discourage the AHS but we don't find many people using it.
"As with the NVD issue, it is a marketing issue.
"We believe that if the farmer wants to sell to full competition in the market, they must use the latest forms.
"Coles, JB Swifts, Teys Bros: they have a lot of faith embedded into their system.
"What worries me is how correct is that information that goes on the NVD," Mr Osborne said.
"A number of markets last year in the lead-up to the changeover date indicated they were not happy with the standard of information required.
"Some of the information required can rule out what the meat can be used for, not because there's anything wrong with the animal but because some of our overseas customers don't understand the paperwork," he said.
"There are continual risks that meat will be rejected because the export customers see information they don't understand."