Kia ora koutou and welcome to the May edition of Organic News

The Ministry for Primary Industries (MPI) is close to finalising regulations under the Organic Products and Production Act 2023 (the Act) and have developed cost recovery proposals to support the new regime. 

Key dates

Below are the upcoming key dates to stand up the new organics regime:

National Organic Standard and Process Regulations

After significant work across MPI, the National Organic Standard and process regulations are nearing completion. We are planning to promulgate these regulations later in the year.

Notices to supplement the National Organic Standard and Process Regulations

Now that the National Organic Standard and process regulations are near finalised, the focus shifts to the development of Notices to supplement these regulations. Public consultation on these Notices is planned for late August 2025.

EU negotiations

EU legislation requires its trading partners to have a treaty level equivalence agreement in place by 1 January 2027 to maintain current market access arrangements for organic products.

MPI have completed the comparison of the EU’s organic legislation with New Zealand’s Organic Products and Production Act 2023 and draft regulations and notices. We are awaiting feedback from the EU on these analyses before we schedule the next negotiation round. MPI remains in close contact with its counterparts in the EU.

Cost Recovery

Section 69 of the Act requires MPI to recover the costs of services under the Act that are not funded by the Crown. This requirement is identical for other regimes MPI administers such as the Food Act 2014, Animal Products Act 1999 and Wine Act 2003. If the Act did not require cost recovery, MPI would need to receive Crown funding to deliver services. MPI has received no Crown funding to deliver services under the organics regime, so must recover costs.

MPI is planning to undertake public consultation on cost recovery proposals for the new organics regime. Public consultation will begin on Tuesday 3 June and run for six weeks.  It will be loaded on the MPI submissions website here: https://www.mpi.govt.nz/consultations/.

Future regulation development

The cost recovery proposals include a description of MPI’s approach to responding to non-compliance. The approach is underpinned by the VADE compliance delivery model. VADE stands for Voluntary, Assisted, Directed and Enforced and is a graduated approach to non-compliance based on the principle that most people want to, and try to comply, and that enforcement acts as an incentive for voluntary compliance.

To support the compliance approach the next phase of regulation development will include the development of graduated suite of enforcement tools for use across the compliance delivery model. These tools will range from warnings to infringements and through to prosecution for the very serious end of offending.

The national organic mark regulations will also be developed in the next phase of regulation development.

Implementation

New Zealand Food Safety is working hard to ensure that systems and process are developed for the new regime. There is work underway on a transition plan for moving recognised entities and organic operators across from the OOAP to the Act. 

Guidance is also being developed to aid a seamless transition. This will be tested with the Organic Sector Advisory Council and organic operators to ensure it is fit for purpose.