NZ organic wine equivelencey agreement with EU

NZ organic wine equivelencey agreement with EU

BioGro is pleased to announce that New Zealand’s equivalency agreement with the European Commission for organic wine is now in force. We received advice of this from Ministry of Primary Industries on August 6, 2014.

BioGro and Organic Winegrowers New Zealand collaborated with MPI for over two years to push the agreement forwards.

Through the agreement, the European Commission has agreed that NZ organic winegrowing standards are equivalent to European ones.

Anna Flowerday, OWNZ member and co-owner of Te Whare Ra Wines, said this is “great for BioGro, Organic Winegrowers and all NZ wine exporters. It makes exporting into the EU a lot easier, less complicated and more certain. This is important especially as Europe is a huge market for us.”

Going forward under the new equivalency agreement, exported wine to the EU can be labelled as “organic wine” and New Zealand certification bodies including BioGro can confirm all production and post-production activities apply with EU regulations.

The agreement is momentous in making sure organic growers have continued access to the European market. It will also have great commercial benefits to the industry, as well as saving time and compliance costs for wine exporters.

‘Ends.’

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