Media Release

23 May 2006

No ban on New Zealand meat

Media reports last week, from an overseas news agency, that the Ukraine had banned imports of New Zealand meat are incorrect, say the New Zealand Food Safety Authority (NZFSA).

"We are not aware of any exports of New Zealand meat to the Ukraine for some years. We believe that the report was actually about non-New Zealand meat that had been fraudulently passed off as being New Zealand product," says Tony Zohrab, NZFSA's Director of Market Access.

"It would be expected that Ukraine officials would refuse entry of any such shipment that they had detected.

"There have been cases of this type of deception before in other countries, and NZFSA assists overseas authorities to confirm that suspicious shipments are not of New Zealand origin. We operate world-leading tracking and certification systems in New Zealand, and our locally-developed electronic certification system ensures that the importing nations who use it can easily identify and verify genuine New Zealand consignments. Traditional paper-based systems are not as secure and unscrupulous traders in other countries have on occasion been able to pass off consignments as being from New Zealand."

NZFSA is working internationally to encourage the uptake of electronic certification for exports of our product and reduce this risk as well as provide efficiency gains to New Zealand producers.

ENDS

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