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Kia ora koutou and welcome to the September edition of MPI Organic News!
It’s spring, and a busy time of year for many of you in the organics sector. We hope the weather across the motu is favourable for the organic kai you are growing, producing or processing over the coming months.
August was a busy month for the organics project team here at New Zealand Food Safety as we gathered with a number of you to start the journey on the development of the National Organic Standard. The technical working groups held in Wellington and Hamilton were engaging and positive and we thank you for the time commitment and huge amount of knowledge you were able to share with the team.
Read below to find out more around the planning work we are doing to continue these conversations on standards development and what’s happening across the other areas of work as well.
The technical working groups for Livestock and Processing and Handling met in Hamilton on 30 and 31 August. Once again thank you to everyone who attended, there was some extremely valuable feedback from the two days. MPI are currently writing up the feedback and organising drop-in sessions to discuss, as well as organising the Inputs workshop later this month – phew!.
Look out for invitations to virtual drop-in sessions and workshops via Zoom over the next few months. The workshops will cover topics that we didn't get to at the face-to-face workshops and the drop-in sessions are to review material from the face-to-face workshops. MPI will send out written up proposals from the face-to-face workshops in advance so participants have a chance to read it.
We're particularly keen to get people with experience and expertise in the aquaculture, poultry, seaweed & algae, fungi and apiary spaces for the virtual sessions. Please reach out to OrganicsConsultation@mpi.govt.nz if you want to come along or pass on this message to others that you know.
The first meeting of the Advisory Council is locked in for September 22nd in Wellington. The meeting will include discussions on:
- Review of the draft Terms of Reference.
- Confirming roles and responsibilities of the Council members (including expectations of Council members and MPI).
- Membership of the Council.
- Frequency and format of meetings.
- The name of the Council.
We're looking forward to getting the Council up and running and will keep you posted on developments.
We have no major updates to share with you this month on the Regulations Development. Mahi in this space is continuing to progress steadily and we are getting ever closer to circulating the updated proposals with you. We are still finalising how best to present the information and get your input on the proposals but will be in touch soon with more details.
The Bill is awaiting its Second Reading in Parliament. The timing of the Second Reading is determined by Parliament and you can check where the Bill is at on Parliament’s daily Order Paper here.
