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Cost recovery proposals under the Organic Products and Production Act 2023

Updates

24 October 2025 – We are reopening this consultation

MPI undertook public consultation on cost recovery proposals in June and July, then extended this to 10 August so Organics Aotearoa New Zealand (OANZ) could lead work on an alternative model for allocating the all-operator levy.

MPI agrees that the OANZ’s proposal for the all-operator levy could work, with some modifications. As a result, we've made tweaks to the OANZ’s turnover-based model and are now seeking your feedback on a new proposal for allocating the all-operator levy.

The details are in this document: Organics cost recovery (revised) [PDF, 342 KB]

Have your say about the revised proposals: consider these questions

Submitters who supported OANZ’s proposed model thought a turnover-based levy was fairer than a volume-based levy and easier for you to calculate. Do you agree?
Do you prefer the turnover-based levy option proposed in this document, or one of the original proposals?

Note: under the revised model these options would need be adjusted to account for the reduced number of operators and the higher expenses.

Make your submission online about the revised model – SurveyMonkey

Submissions close on 2 November 2025. We appreciate your continued engagement with this process.

15 July 2025 – Closing extended

The consultation was extended for another 4 weeks. It closed on 10 August 2025.

10 June 2025 – Registrations opened for webinars or drop-in sessions

We set up 3 webinars or drop-in sessions to support the public consultation process for the organic sector, providing a forum to answer any questions.

6 June 2025 – Discussion document updated

The following corrections were made to the table in section 11.1.2 of the discussion document:

added definition of terms for [d] (page 24), previously missing from table
corrected labelling of definition of terms for [j] and [k] (page 26), previously mislabelled as [e] and [f].

See the discussion document

Background information: summary

In 2023, Parliament passed the Organic Products and Production Act 2023 (the Act) to regulate organic claims in New Zealand. The Act sets the requirements for making an organic claim and enables the development of secondary legislation to regulate how organic products are made in New Zealand. The new regulatory system is intended to provide consumer confidence in the claims made by New Zealand producers of organic products, and confidence and certainty in the trade of organic products for New Zealand businesses and our trading partners. It will also form the basis of negotiations to gain access to other markets for New Zealand’s organic produce.

To fund the system, MPI must recover costs not covered by the Crown. We anticipate cost recovery for some businesses will begin in mid-2026 to ensure that we can bring operators into the system within the timeframes required to maintain access to the European Union (EU) and Switzerland for organic products.

The services discussed in the consultation document have been identified as necessary to administer the Act with an appropriate level of oversight. We seek your views on whether you think the range and level of services are appropriate (the right type and size), and if the charging mechanism is appropriate, for example the fee or levy. The proposed fees would apply to direct services, while levies would fund broader sector benefits.

We sought your feedback

We sought your input on the cost recovery proposals for services that included:

approval (certification)
oversight, support, and monitoring services for the standard
work to facilitate the export of organic products.

The proposals affected all businesses which make organic claims about food, beverages, and plant and animal products.

Full details were in the consultation document.

Submission closed on 10 August 2025.

Consultation document

Proposal to cost recover New Zealand Food Safety’s regulatory services under the Organic Products and Production Act 2023 [PDF, 2.9 MB]

Making your submission

Email: organicsconsultation@mpi.govt.nz

Post:

Cost Recovery Directorate
Ministry for Primary Industries
PO Box 2526
Wellington 6140.

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 and 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