Kia ora koutou and welcome to the April edition of MPI Organic News!

It is a very exciting time as the Government has passed the Organic Production Bill through its third reading! This gives us some certainly around the development of the Regulations and Standard that we have been working on in parallel with the Bill. You can read about more details on the Bill in the section below.

The consultation on the National Organic Standard for organic food, beverages, and plant and animal products is set to get underway in mid-April. The team will provide further details of where to find the Standard proposals and how to provide feedback in the next couple of weeks.

There have been some very exciting developments in this space, with the Organic Products and Production Bill passing some more key milestones!

On Thursday 30 March 2023, the Bill completed the Committee of the whole House and Third Reading stages. During the Committee stage, the House voted to incorporate the amendments set out in the supplementary order paper tabled by Minister Damien O’Connor in October 2022.

Minister David Parker oversaw the two stages on behalf of Minister O’Connor and thanked everyone, particularly Aotearoa’s organic sector for all the mahi that has gone into progressing the legislation through the House over the past three years. You can read Minister Parker’s full third reading speech, alongside those from other Members of Parliament, on Parliament’s website.

The last remaining stage for the Bill is Royal Assent. This stage involves the Governor General signing the Bill into law and it is largely procedural. You can learn more about Royal Assent on Parliament’s website. Once the stage is complete, the Bill will become law and be known as the Organic Products and Production Act. An updated and correct version of the Act, including the content added by Minister O’Connor’s supplementary order paper, will also become available on the New Zealand legislation website.

The NZFS Organics team are in the final review stages of preparing the National Organic Standard proposals for public consultation. Once internal processes are complete, we will have this content up on the web for you to provide feedback on.

We will be promoting the National Organic Standard consultation through various channels and do ask that you share this information to allow your friends and whānau to provide feedback. We will also be inviting you to come along to one of the virtual drop-in sessions during this time to ask questions on specific topics.

Mahi on the process regulations for approving organic businesses and recognising third parties to carry out evaluation and verification continues to move forward.

Cabinet have now reviewed the process regulation proposals and gave approval for the Parliamentary Counsel Office to begin drafting the regulations. The Parliamentary Counsel Office are responsible for designing, drafting and publishing New Zealand legislation. 

From October to December 2022, MPI asked for feedback on more detailed proposals of the process regulations. A summary of submissions of the written feedback received during this period is now available on the organic legislation page of the MPI website. A big thank you to everyone who took the time to review the proposals and send in feedback!

The Organic Sector Advisory Council was held on the 15^th of March in Wellington with a great turnout of 12 members in person and 3 joining online. The council discussed the progress on the process regulations and summary of submissions from the engagement that was held last year. These regulations have now been approved for the Parliamentary Counsel Office to begin drafting.

The was also an informative presentation given by the Sustainable Food and Fibre Futures (SFFF) team. Jaimie gave a run down on what SFFF represents, who they fund and categories under which projects can receive funding. If you want to find out more about what SFFF do you can head over to their webpage for more information: https://www.mpi.govt.nz/funding-rural-support/sustainable-food-fibre-futures/