Welcome to the February 2025 edition of Wine News. All previous newsletters are available here under Editions of Wine News.

In this month’s edition we will cover:

• Wine export and exemptions guidance
• European Union wine category
• Labelling samples to send to the laboratory for chemistry testing
• MPI Trade Certification tips

Wine export and exemptions guidance

In December 2024, the Ministry for Primary Industries (MPI) published an updated version of  the Wine Export and Exemptions guidance document.

It’s a great source of information to help you on your export journey and includes different scenarios where export eligibility requirements or an exemption apply.  

European Union wine category

The European Union (EU) wine category selected for products in MPI Trade Certification must reflect the category of the wine at the point of export from New Zealand.

For example, when exporting bulk wine to Australia for further processing into sparkling wine, the wine category must be ‘wine’ on export from New Zealand.

Labelling samples to send to the laboratory for chemistry testing

A reminder to include the bottler reference on samples sent to the laboratory for EU or Brazil chemistry testing requested through MPI Trade Certification.

Ensure the sample you send to the laboratory is labelled with the following:

• MPI Trade Certification product ID
• wine test number
• wine company name
• main wine name
• format for shipping - packaged or bulk
• winemaker reference
• bottler reference
• date sample is collected
• bottling date for packaged wine
• tank number for bulk wine

Guidance material and who to contact

The MPI Trade Certification User Guide For wine businesses provides useful guidance to help you create and amend products, and request export documentation for New Zealand grape wine.

If the guidance document above does not answer your question or there is an issue, please direct any MPI Trade Certification related queries to tradecertification@mpi.govt.nz. 

For general exporting information, visit the Exporting New Zealand grape wine webpage and you can contact MPI’s Exporter Regulatory Advice Service (ERAS) exporterhelp@mpi.govt.nz.

All other enquiries should be directed to info@mpi.govt.nz.

Requesting winemaker and packaging Wine Standards Management Plan confirmations

A reminder to complete all sections when setting up a new product in MPI Trade Certification before requesting Wine Standards Management Plan (WSMP) confirmations. 

If the WSMP owner confirms the details and an amendment is made to product data, the WSMP confirmation will reset and must be requested and confirmed again.

For winemaking details, complete all the required general information, relevant market declarations and add the ingredient list, if applicable - refer to European Union wine OMAR. The last step is to enter the winemaker WSMP number and request confirmation. 

For packaging details, you can setup the bottling/filling run details, then finalise these after the bottling/filling is complete. The last step is to enter the packaging WSMP number and request confirmation. 

You may add more bottling/filling runs after the initial WSMP confirmation, however, remember to request the packaging confirmation again after the new bottling/filling runs have been added to the product.

Amending product information

MPI Trade Certification allows you to amend your product data yourself up until the first export request is made. 

Any amendments made after the WSMP confirmation step will reset this confirmation and the WSMP confirmation will need to be requested again.

After the first export, if you need to make any amendments, contact tradecertification@mpi.govt.nz who will make the change so that any amendment does not impact previously issued export documentation

Contact Us

If there are specific items that you would like us to cover in future editions, please get in touch with us.

Wine Assurance, New Zealand Food Safety — Haumaru Kai Aotearoa

Email wine.query@mpi.govt.nz  

Website Exporting NZ grape wine | NZ Government (mpi.govt.nz)

For updates on export information such as OMARs and FYI documents, click the link below.