Staff update

We are very sad to announce the resignation of Amanda McKay, Manager Assessments – AgChems & VTAs.

Amanda will be moving to new role based in Christchurch as the Enterprise Food Safety Manager with Foodstuffs South Island. Amanda has been a highly regarded and valued member of the ACVM team.

During her 3½ years with ACVM, she has made a significant contribution through her leadership, collaborative approach, and strong commitment to the work. Amanda’s warmth, drive, and willingness to support others have had a lasting impact, and she will be particularly missed by colleagues across the AgChem and ACVM leadership teams.

Amanda’s last day is 5 June 2026. Recruitment has commenced for a new manager.

ACVM Annual Winter Workshop

This year’s workshop will be held at the Michael Fowler Centre, Wellington, on Tuesday, 21 July, the day before the planned Animal Plant Health New Zealand (APHANZ) Annual Conference. We are currently planning this event and invite your suggestions for topics of interest to cover on the day. Please email these to alison.weaver@mpi.govt.nz. 

A registration link via Eventbrite will be open in the coming weeks.

Draft agenda highlights 

(indicative only - agenda subject to change)

• Meet the people behind the process: Introduction to the current Agricultural Chemicals and Veterinary Medicines team and how we work with our stakeholders.
• What’s new and what’s next: A practical legislative update and what it means for our stakeholders.
• Ministry for Regulation review implementation: An update on how the recommendations from the review are tracking, with insights into external data assessor framework approaches and maximising use of overseas regulator assessments.

Presentations from previous events can be found here on our website.

Inhibitor update

ACVM has recently published an update to the environmental Inhibitor Guidance document for the Efficacy and Plant safety for Urease and nitrification inhibitors. This guidance document has been updated to better support use of qualitative label claims and including the nitrogen (N) that is used in these types of products when calculating efficacy impacts. With the update to the Methane Inhibitor efficacy guidance published in October 2025, this completes one of the 13 recommendations from the Ministry for Regulation’s Agricultural and Horticultural Products Regulatory review.

Enquiries

ACVM continues to receive regular enquiries from companies considering product registration. Since January 2025, ACVM staff have held registration discussions with 33 companies, with six indicating an intention to seek product authorisation in the next 12 months.

New Zealand Agriculture and Climate Change conference

ACVM also attended the New Zealand Agriculture and Climate Change conference in Wellington on 29-30 April, which attracted around 450 delegates both in person and online. Presentations highlighted New Zealand’s long‑standing advantage in agricultural emissions, built over the past 20 years through science, regulation, markets, and consumer engagement. However, delegates were cautioned against complacency as other countries are rapidly progressing. A recurring theme was the need to demonstrate productivity benefits and monetise adoption to drive uptake of new technologies.

AMR team update

The AMR team has engaged industry experts and is in the planning phase for a national AMR plant surveillance survey. If you are interested in viewing interactive antibiotic sales or AMR surveillance data, you can view the AMR surveillance dashboard on our website. 

The MPI antibiotic classification document has been updated and is available on the MPI website. There are no changes to antibiotic classification. The changes are only to improve clarity on the antibiotic classification system, by collating all information in one place.

Compliance update

ACVM Regulatory Programmes received 20 reports of potential or confirmed non-compliant ACVM products and activities in April 2026. Of these,

• 10% were complaints of potentially non-compliant exempt or unregistered ACVM products being advertised and/or sold.
• 10% were complaints of potentially non-compliant ACVM registered products being advertised and/or sold.
• 40% were notifications of non-complying batches of ACVM registered products released or yet to be released to the market.
• 40% were international notifications of rapid alerts, recalls or GMP non-compliance reports. The majority of which did not affect ACVM products in New Zealand.

80 events have been received as of April 2026:

MRL consultation

New Zealand Food Safety wants your feedback about seven proposals for new or amended maximum residue levels in Schedule 1 and one proposal for a new entry in Schedule 2. You can submit your feedback on our Proposals to amend the Food Notice: Maximum Residue Levels for Agricultural Compounds – April 2026 webpage. Consultation closes on 12 June.

International - VICH Guidance update

VICH is the International Cooperation on Harmonisation of Technical Requirements for Registration of Veterinary Medicinal Products. NZ is a standing member of the VICH Steering Committee.

The following final VICH Quality Guideline has been signed off by the Steering Committee and formally sent to the VICH regions for implementation:

• VICH GL 61 – (Quality) – Pharmaceutical Development: Pharmaceutical Development for Veterinary Medicinal Products.

This Guideline is released for implementation at step 7 in the regions by April 2027 and will be made available on the VICH public website https://vichsec.org/

Purchase order numbers for ACVM invoices

If you require a purchase order number to be included in any ACVM invoice issued to you, please state this clearly in the payment information section on the relevant application form (or portal entry for class determinations). This will enable us to ensure that your invoice is issued correctly first time, eliminating time spent correcting and reissuing invoices.

Contact us

ACVM, New Zealand Food Safety Haumaru Kai Aotearoa

Pastoral House, 25 The Terrace, PO Box 2526, Wellington 6140, New Zealand

Email approvals@mpi.govt.nz  

Website Agricultural compounds and veterinary medicines (ACVM) | Agriculture | NZ Government (mpi.govt.nz)

Subscribe to ‘Agricultural Compounds and Veterinary Medicines’ and ‘ACVM recalls’ on the Ministry for Primary Industries website to receive email updates on matters relating to ACVM.