Hon Nathan Guy
Minister for Primary Industries

28 May 2013

NZ meat exports to China gain official clearance

Certificates for shipments of New Zealand meat have today received official clearance from Chinese authorities, Primary Industries Minister Nathan Guy has announced.

“In the last hour we’ve received an update from the New Zealand Embassy in Beijing. AQSIQ headquarters has confirmed that it has all the information it needs to authorise ports to start clearing the first 245 priority consignments from today. Importers and agents will then be able to collect their shipments.

“These consignments have been delayed the longest. New certificates for these were delivered to AQSIQ on Friday last week.

“The remaining 1355 certificates for delayed consignments will be delivered to AQSIQ today.

“A total of 1600 certificates have now been reissued under the previous New Zealand Food Safety Authority certification and sent to China.

“This is good news for exporters after what has been a frustrating few weeks.

“It will take some time to clear the backlog, but it’s positive we will have meat moving into the hands of Chinese consumers again.

“The total value of the shipments of the meat is a commercial matter for the meat companies involved. It has been stored correctly and is mostly frozen.

“There have been no new exports of meat to China since May 13, but New Zealand officials are now working with Chinese authorities on new meat export certifications. This would allow more New Zealand processing plants to export meat to China once the backlog is cleared.

“We have a well-respected certification system and I’m confident that AQSIQ will work constructively with us on progressing this.

“The Ministry is in daily contact with meat exporters, and are putting in place a contact point so they can ring and find the status of their shipment,” says Mr Guy.

ENDS

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