Changes to organic products law

The new system has three key parts:

• The Act enables any ministry to set up an organic system for the products they are responsible for and ensures Government will have decision-making oversight for the approval of organic products.
• The detail of the new system for the primary sector will sit in regulations. Regulations will set out the processes for businesses, recognised entities, and MPI to follow so that organic food, beverages, and plant and animal products can be approved as organic. These processes will include requirements like having an organic management plan and verifications (or audits).
• The national organic standard will set the production and processing rules for products labelled as organic, and any requirements that are specific to the products covered by the standard. Meeting the standard will be mandatory for anyone wanting to call their products organic. The standard will be made into law through a combination of regulations and notices.

The system will also include additional compliance and cost-recovery regulations. We will seek your views on these regulations once the proposals have been developed.

To learn about how the new organics system will be made into law, refer to:

Organic products and production: How the new system will be made into law [PDF, 118 KB]

There are 4 key steps to getting approved as an organic operator under the new system. These steps will be set out in the regulations. The steps are:

1. Have an organic management plan (OMP).
2. Get a pre-approval check from a recognised entity. The pre-approval check includes a review of the OMP and an onsite assessment to confirm the operator is complying with their OMP in practice.
3. Submit an application for approval to MPI. MPI will use the application and information gathered during the pre-approval check to approve the operator.
4. Receive ongoing verifications from a recognised entity, to ensure that the operator is continuing to follow their OMP and meet the national organic standard.

Businesses who produce, process, sell, or deal in products they describe as organic must be approved by MPI.

There are a small number of businesses within the organic supply chain who are exempt from approval. This is because these businesses pose a low risk to organic integrity and the cost of their approval would be disproportionate to the level of risk. The exempted businesses include:

• Businesses providing a final consumer service, such as cafes and restaurants.
• Retailers who sell pre-packaged organic products that were packaged by an approved business. Retailers must keep this packaging intact. Retailers who also import organic products must be approved by MPI, regardless of whether the products they import are pre-packaged.

MPI also proposes that very small businesses are exempt from approval.

While these businesses are exempt from approval, they will still be required to meet the National Organic Standard and maintain the organic integrity of their products. These operators are still expected to ensure than organic claims are accurate and not commit fraud for benefit.

The new regulatory system for organic products will have different impacts on everyone involved. The rules that will apply will depend on what you do (for example, growing, producing, processing, importing, or exporting organic products). 

Find out how to have your say on the details of the proposed regulations

MPI is responsible for providing advice to the Government on the design of the new regulatory system for the primary sector and will be responsible for administering the new system once it is in place. A large part of MPI’s role will be approving businesses that want to say that their food, beverage, plant and animal products are organic.

This is important to:

• ensure that consumers have the added confidence to purchase organic products
• improve consistency in decision-making on who is approved to make organic claims
• reduce conflicts of interests in decision making, and
• give greater assurance to the governments of our international trading partners to accept New Zealand organic products.

Currently, certification agencies provide verification, assessment, and certification services as well as a final peer-review of all paperwork and processes for a business before issuing certification. In the new regime, MPI will undertake this final peer review step. All other verification and assessment activities would remain the role of recognised entities, very similar to current practice.

Current organic certifiers in Aotearoa New Zealand will still play a key role in the new system as "recognised entities". Recognised entities will remain responsible for assessing businesses’ organic management plans and providing verification services (for example, conducting audits).

Ultimate responsibility for the approval of organic operators will now be held by MPI. However, the Bill requires MPI to take into account the information supplied by recognised entities when determining approval.

We want to make sure businesses have adequate time to transition into the new system and make it as easy as possible to do so. To do this, MPI is developing transitional arrangements to bring organic businesses into the new system that acknowledge existing certification systems. Once we work out what this will look like in practice, guidance will be provided to support businesses to move into the new system.

The regime aims to strike a balance between providing certainty that businesses are meeting the organic standards and ensuring the costs to those businesses are reasonable.

MPI wants to minimise costs for organic businesses and support small businesses who want to participate in organics. To do this, we propose:

• providing for flexibility in how often on-site checks are required, as this is often the most expensive feature of compliance
• "group schemes", where some organic businesses can group together to share the cost of verification
• exemptions from the approval process for very small organic businesses, such as those selling their organic produce at their farm gate.

The proposed process is designed to align with other regimes administered by MPI, such as the Food Act 2014, Animal Products Act 1999, and Wine Act 2003, to streamline requirements and reduce costs to organic businesses where possible.

The pre-approval check, including the on-site assessment and review of an operator’s OMP, will be costed by the recognised entity, independently of MPI.

There will also be an application fee charged by MPI. The cost will be minimal and reflect the administration costs of running the application process. The exact cost of the application fee is still being worked through.

MPI will consult with the sector on the fees as well as any levies that may be required for the ongoing services, maintenance, and operation of the organics system.