Kia ora koutou,

Bilateral equivalence negotiations

As some of you may be aware, in late December 2025, the European Commission (EC) notified a limited number of targeted changes to its organic legislation. One proposal is to extend third country equivalence recognition from the current deadline (i.e. 31 December 2026) to 31 December 2036. The notification of this proposal initiates the beginning of the European Union (EU) legislative process, i.e. there are further steps to go before the proposal is adopted as official EU law.

The Ministry for Primary Industries has initiated negotiations with the EU and intends to continue prioritising this process. In addition, an assessment process for equivalence with the United States National Organic Program is underway.  

Updates will be provided as these processes continue.

Implementation of the regime

The new organics regime will be in place no later than 31 March 2028, unless equivalency with trading partners is negotiated prior. 

To achieve the 31 March 2028 deadline and allow organic operators enough time to update their systems and processes to ensure they comply with the new requirements, MPI will open the system for approvals on 1 July 2027.  

Public consultation

A reminder that the third tranche of notice content is now out for public consultation; we are seeking your feedback on the proposed requirements relating to the Organic Management Plan (OMP) and export certification.

The consultation document can be found here:

https://www.mpi.govt.nz/consultations/consultation-on-organics-standard-notice-tranche-3

Consultation on this tranche closes today, Tuesday 31 March 2026.

Notice content

The team continue to review submissions received on notice content.

The Organic Notice: Recognised Entities, Verification and Evaluation which covers the requirements for recognised entities, including recognition, accreditation, verification, quality management systems, competencies and record keeping, to supplement both sets of regulations is expected to be published mid-April.  

The Organic Notice: Products and Production which covers the technical content to supplement the Organic Standards Regulations and the requirements for organic management plans and export certification is expected to be published mid-May. As is the Organic Notice: Generic Substances.

Ngā mihi,

The Organic Project Team