With August to November being peak export time for organic wine exporters, New Zealand Food Safety deputy director-general Vincent Arbuckle says the Ministry for Primary Industries wants to remind exporters of market requirements to the United States and the European Union.
From September 19, US importers of New Zealand organic wine must be certified organic.
In March the MPI published revised market access requirements for the US, requiring all consignments exported to the US to be associated with a United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) National Organic Program (NOP) import certificate.
The rules for import certificates require that the US importer named in the certificate is certified organic.
To allow time for US importers to catch up on their certification, the US temporarily allowed import certificates to be generated without an importer being certified, but this temporary measure ends on September 19.
“The USDA has also advised that this will likely impact consignments that are ‘on the water’ on September 19 2024”.
The MPI said exporters should engage with importers to confirm they are on track to complete certification.
Organic wine exporters sending wine to European markets under the MPI’s Official Organic Assurance Programme must obtain a Certificate of Inspection (COI) prior to the departure of the consignment from New Zealand.
Obtaining official organic assurance applies to organic exports to the EU, Great Britain, Switzerland, Northern Ireland and Norway.
Deadlines for COIs are set in the laws and regulations by the respective European market.
The process to obtain an organic export certification is separate from the process to obtain export eligibility statements for wine.
Goods cannot leave New Zealand without the necessary documentation.
