Introduction to exporting

If you are new to exporting food or food-related products, find out about the requirements you need to meet and where to find information about how to meet them.

If you intend to export food or food-related products or you process, store or transport them for export, you must meet New Zealand regulatory requirements for exporting. Regulations for these exports are administered by MAF. Food or food-related products include animal products (such as meat, seafood, dairy and animal feed products), organic products, plants or wine. To be eligible for export, your products need to comply with general requirements for export as well as requirements specific to the products you are exporting.

Meeting requirements specific to your food sector

To find export requirements specific to the food or food-related products you are exporting, refer to the relevant information in your food sector.

Food sectors

General requirements for exporting

If you are exporting from New Zealand you may need to:

• be registered with MAF
• comply with the relevant legislation
• operate under a plan or programme that is registered with MAF
• meet all requirements of the destination country or market you are exporting to.

As well as food safety requirements, which are set out on this website, you may also need to meet biosecurity, customs and other requirements before your products are eligible for export.

MAF Biosecurity – Going to other countries (MAF Biosecurity website)

New Zealand Customs Service (External website)

Registering as an exporter

If you want to export food products, in most cases, you must register as an exporter with MAF. As a registered exporter you have certain duties. You can find out more on the page, Registering as an exporter, in the left-hand menu.

Until you have registered, you will not be able to have access to information about the requirements of many destination countries. This applies particularly if you are exporting animal products, including dairy.

Complying with New Zealand requirements

Products eligible for export must meet requirements under New Zealand legislation. Many of these are specific to the food products you are exporting. Requirements that apply to a wide range of exported food products include:

• certification, such as offical assurances or export certificates, which must accompany your products to the destination market
• ensuring your products have the correct security devices.

You can find out about these requirements by clicking on Certification in the left-hand menu.

The legislation, which governs requirements for many exports is the Animal Products Act 1999. Wine exports come under the Wine Act 2003 and, in some circumstances, food can be exported under the Food Act 1981. If you want to find out more about the legislation that governs the production of safe and suitable food for export and sale in New Zealand, you can find this in the Policy & law section of the site.

Food regulation

Operating under a plan or progamme

When you manufacture, store or transport food products for export you usually operate under a MAF-registered plan or programme. This could be a:

• Risk Management Programme (RMP)
• Regulated Control Scheme (RCS)
• Food Safety Programme (FSP)
• Approved Premises (AP) Notice – programmes for premises which process animal or material product not for human or animal consumption
• Wine Standards Management Plan (WSMP).

You can find out more about implementing operational plans by visiting the General requirements & programmes section of the website.

General requirements & programmes

The section for your food sector explains what kind of programme you must operate under to export food and food-related products.

Food sectors

For information on operational plans for products presenting a slightly lower level of risk  – that is, products not for human or animal consumption – click on Export-approved premises in the left-hand menu.

Meeting destination country requirements

To be eligible for export, your products must meet requirements, so that MAF can issue an export certificate or official assurance. The requirements are outlined in different programmes:

• Official Assurances Programme (OAP), which relates to animal products and animal material
• Official Grade Assurance Programme, a voluntary programme for plant products intended as food
• Official Organic Assurance Programme (OOAP), a voluntary programme for organic products.

You can find out more about these programmes by clicking on Certification in the left-hand menu.

Your products must also meet requirements of the destination country. For some countries, MAF has made agreements with other governments which allow exports to these markets. These requirements are known as Overseas Market Access Requirements (OMARs).

You can find more information about these on the Market access (OMARs) page in the left-hand menu.

Exporting to countries without an official assurance

If there are no agreed requirements for a destination country, your product may be eligible for export without an export certificate or official assurance. If the importer in the destination country informs you of requirements, then you must notify MAF of these.   

Your obligations are described in part 20 of the OAP.