Consultation on Organics Standard Notice – Tranche 1

Update: 18 August 2026

New organic notice and review of submissions released

Following this consultation, New Zealand Food Safety published the new Organic Notice: Operators 2026 [PDF, 497 KB]

The notice specifies requirements for operators to supplement both sets of regulations (the Organic Products and Processing Regulations 2025 and the Organic Standards Regulations 2025) and the Organic Products and Processing Act 2023. Requirements cover technical content for topics that include:

prohibited procedures, organisms, and products
inputs, waste, by-products, pests, weeds, and diseases
design, construction, and use of facilities and production equipment
conversion
packaging, transport and retail
plants, plant products, and fungi
wild harvest
livestock
aquaculture
bees and bee products
processed products
requirements for Organic Management Plans
verification records.

Public consultation on the notice content was held between 28 October and 5 December 2025 and again from 5 to 31 March 2026. In addition, proposed requirements relating to verification records were consulted on from 17 December 2025 to 2 March 2026.

A summary of the submissions we received is available to download.

Summary of submissions [PDF, 727 KB]

After the consultation closed

We considered all submissions that were sent to us. Notice-related submissions are addressed in the summary of submissions document. We appreciate the feedback we got from some submitters on matters outside the scope of the notice. While this input will help inform the development and implementation of the system, we did not respond to these in the submissions document.

This was the first of 3 consultations

The Ministry for Primary Industries (MPI) began work on developing a standards notice to supplement both the Organic Products and Production Regulations and the Organic Standards Regulations.

The standards notice would set out technical information for operators and recognised entities. It would be structured into sections based on information that was relevant to those 2 groups.

We consulted about the content of the organic supplementary notices in 3 stages.

Tranche 1: technical content to supplement the Organic Standards Regulations.
Tranche 2: requirements for operators, organic management plans, record-keeping, and imports to supplement both sets of regulations.
Tranche 3: requirements for recognised entities, including recognition, accreditation, verification, quality management systems, competencies and record-keeping, to supplement both sets of regulations.

Consultation background

We sought your input on the proposed notice for technical information for operators and recognised entities (Tranche 1).

Topics included in Tranche 1

Defined terms.
Prohibited procedures, organisms and products.
Records about inputs.
Identifying and storing inputs.
Duties relating to environmentally sensitive areas and biodiversity.
Managing waste and by-products.
Managing pests, weeds and disease.
Design, construction and use of facilities and production equipment.
Managing risks to product compliance with organic standard.
General sampling and testing.
Conversion.
Soil health and fertility.
Transport and storage.
Dispatching compliant products and receiving specified items.
Retail.
Packaging & products sold without packaging.
Technical requirements relating to:
- the production of plants, plant products, and fungi.
- livestock
- aquaculture
- bees and bee products
- processed products
- split or parallel production and processing.

In addition to your general feedback on the technical requirements of this first tranche, MPI sought feedback on specific sections listed in this table.

Table: Specific sections for your feedback

Notice reference	Questions
5.12 Livestock Feed (Standards Regulations 82-92) and 6.10 Aquaculture Feed (Standards Regulations 112)	1. Are the proposed record-keeping requirements relating to livestock and aquaculture feed relevant to these types of operations, and are they set at the right level (i.e., are there too many or too few records being proposed)? 2. Can you identify any gaps for records that need to be captured in relation to feed?
5.9 Livestock housing (Standards Regulation 94)	3. Do you agree with the level of prescription given to the requirements for livestock housing (in other words, are they too constraining)? 4. What are the main factors that need to be considered and captured in the notice for livestock housing?
5.11 Poultry Stocking Rates (Standards Regulation 97)	5. Would it be appropriate to set prescriptive stocking rates or to set stocking rates with an outcome-focused approach? a. If you believe prescriptive stocking rates would be more appropriate, do you see any changes that need to be made to the numbers proposed in the notice? b. If you believe an outcome-focused approach would be more appropriate, what are the factors that need to be taken into consideration and set out in the notice? Note: An 'outcome-focused approach' means placing emphasis on the animal's ability to have freedom of movement and exhibit natural behaviours. ‘Prescriptive stocking rates’ means to have set numbers for this purpose.
8.2 Grape wine: methods and conditions of production (Standards Regulation 147)	6. Should the oenological practices, processes and treatments set out in subclause (1) be prohibited for organic wine made in New Zealand? a. If you agree that they should be prohibited, do you have any suggested changes to this list?

Consultation documents

Organics Standard Notice – Tranche 1 [PDF, 824 KB]

Discussion paper: Organic Standards Notice [PDF, 382 KB]

Submissions are public information

Note that all, part, or a summary of your submission may be published on this website. Most often this happens when we issue a document that reviews the submissions received.

People can also ask for copies of submissions under the Official Information Act 1982 (OIA). The OIA says we must make the content of submissions available unless we have good reason for withholding it. Those reasons are detailed in sections 6 to 9 of the OIA.

If you think there are grounds to withhold specific information from publication, make this clear in your submission or contact us. Reasons may include that it discloses commercially sensitive or personal information. However, any decision MPI makes to withhold details can be reviewed by the Ombudsman, who may direct us to release it.

Official Information Act 1982 – NZ Legislation

Our privacy commitment

The Privacy Act 2020 applies to all submissions. Any personal information you provide will be used only for the purpose of informing this consultation. All submissions will be read by MPI staff. MPI may also use artificial intelligence (AI) to summarise content and identify key themes. All AI outputs will be subject to human review.

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