Exporting webinars

Slide 1 – Title: Exporting 101 & introduction to the Exporter Regulatory Advice Service (ERAS)

Hi everyone and thanks for joining us today. My name is Nicky and we have Emma here who will also be presenting today. We both work in the Exporter Regulatory Advice Service or ERAS which is part of MPI. In today’s session we will cover MPI’s role in exporting, steps to getting started in exporting and how the ERAS team can help.

Slide 2 – Title: MPIs role in exporting

So the Ministry for Primary Industries MPI is responsible for ensuring our primary industry export products meet export requirements and are fit for their intended use. We do this by setting regulatory standards for food and agricultural products, verifying that the standards are met, and providing assurances for overseas markets.

Exports of primary industry products are critical to New Zealand’s economy. Our work helps producers maintains the quality and reputation of our products and this supports export growth.

Slide 3 – Title: Who is ERAS?

The Exporter Regulatory Advice Service or ERAS was established in 2016 after exporters and stakeholders asked for a customer centric advice service at MPI. Our focus is to help New Zealand’s primary sector export businesses by making it easier for exporters to understand the requirements they must meet and the time and effort needed to export.

ERAS offers supports to all businesses, small and large from those right at the start of their journey, to those with the years of experience. To do this, we deliver 1 on 1 advice, education and tools that enable exporters to more easily navigate export requirements and exporting systems.  

Slide 4 –Title:  The roles of government agencies

So, we have already talked about MPI’s role in exporting, but there are several government agencies who can support you when you are exporting. Today I’m just going to go over some high-level information about the roles of other government agencies.

Ok, MBIE or Ministry of Business innovation and employment, they work closely with NZTE or New Zealand Trade and Enterprise to help New Zealand businesses grow internationally. MFAT – Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade, they negotiate and implement Free Trade agreements. Medsafe are responsible for the regulations of therapeutic products in New Zealand – for example they cover the regulations of dietary supplements. Environmental Protection Authority Agency or EPA – regulations for cosmetics come under this agency. New Zealand Customs, they monitor export goods and encourage New Zealand’s international trade. Stats NZ which is the official source for all government data including exports. And then we have New Zealand export credit office which is New Zealand’s export credit agency and a unit within Treasury.

Slide 6 – Export Roadmap

So, we like to think of exporting as a journey. There are 3 key steps involved. The first step is meeting New Zealand’s requirements, doing your in-market research and finding an importer and also making sure you can meet destination requirements. So, Emma’s just going to go into more detail about these steps in the following slides. 

Slide 6 – Title: Meeting NZ requirements

So, the first step of your exporting journey is all about meeting New Zealand requirements. So, for food businesses in New Zealand, this means that products must be processed, transported and stored by registered operators in order to be eligible for export. So, registrations could mean things like being under Risk Based measures under the Food Act. So those could be the Food Control Plans or a National Program registration. Under the Animal Products Act, that could mean having a register Risk Management Program also known as an RMP or a Regulatory Control Scheme (RCS).

The next key thing to know is that all food must follow the Australian New Zealand Food Standards Code. So, this applies to both labelling and compositional requirements. It’s also important to know if you need to register with MPI as an exporter. So, registration for exporters apply for animal products, fruit wine, cider, and organics.

Slide 7 – Title: Market Research

The second step of the exporting journey is all about doing your market research. So, it’s really important to understand all of the export regulations and what they mean for your business before you start exporting. The first key step for this usually involves getting in touch with an importer based in the market you are looking to export to. An importer is really important as they know the most about their market and they can advise on things which MPI may not know about. They can also tell you things like if you need to get an import permit and also how to label your product for certain markets. Another part of doing your market research is doing a scope of the market for your product. To assist with this, the ERAS team has produced 3 posters on export snap shots which are shown on the screen. And these summarise data on key markets, export prices and key trends.

Slide 8 – Title: Overseas Market Access Requirements (OMARs)

The next part of exporting journey is about understanding the overseas requirements for your product and these are outlined in the Overseas Market Access Requirements documents. These are also referred to as OMARs. So, these documents set out requirements for animal products, organics and wine and they state the agreed requirements between MPI and the destination market government. These documents will also outline whether you need to get an export certificate for your products. It’s really important to know that a number of these OMAR documents are password protected as they contain commercially sensitive information. So often you need to be a registered exporter such as a registered animal products exporter or a RMP operator to be able to get access to read them.

Slide 9 – Title: Importing Country Phytosanitary Requirements (ICPRs)

A similar document to the OMAR documents as explained before are the Importing Country Phytosanitary Requirements and these are known as ICPRs. So, these apply to plant products and they are types of things like fruits, vegetables, grains, seeds and wood products that are for export. The ICPR documents – you don’t need a password to view them and they tell you important things like if you need to get an import permit for your products or if you need to get a phytosanitary certificate for your product as well.

Slide 10 – Title: Export Certification

Another key step in exporting is understanding whether you need to get any type of export certification for your product. An export certificate is also known as an official assurance, so this is a certificate that provides the importing country the confirmation from MPI that your product meets certain standards and requirements.

There are a number of different export certifications available for products. Some markets have a requirement that an export certificate is compulsory in order to be able to send a product there. It’s really important to know early on in your exporting journey if you need to get an export certificate as this will have an onward affect on the type of premises that your product needs to be processed at. For example, if you are processing honey for a market that requires an export certificate, then it must be produced in an RMP premises.

So, some of the different examples of export certification that MPI issues is firstly an export certificate for animal products, so that applies for things like honey, dairy, meat, seafood, and hides and skins from animals. Another one is a phytosanitary certificate and that one applies to plant products such as fruit and vegetables and forestry products. Exporting New Zealand grape wines, it is required from some markets to get wine batch approval signed off. Then finally, for other processed foods products, a Free Sales Certificate is usually issued for these. What this helps with is your product getting entry into the market for the first time.

Slide 11 – Title: Resources

(Emma) I will now pass back to Nicky who is going to take you through some of the resources that our team has produced.

(Nicky) Thanks Emma. So, from the queries we get from exporters and businesses, these are stored in a data base which we use to run reports and figure out trends of where we may be able to better assist in the export chain. So that data drives which resources and tools we look at creating.

A few examples of these resources are shown on the screen here. We’ve got AP E-cert Guidance Materials which consists of 2 YouTube videos outlining the process, step by step guides, a walk through demo and a glossary. We’ve got export stat posters which Emma mentioned before. So these outline market trends, export value and key export markets. We have recently updated out honey guide which you can get online. This guides you through the steps to exporting honey which are broken down into sections from beekeeping and manufacturing right through to exporting. And then since last year we have started offering webinars such as the one we are doing today and the more specialised topics we will be offering over the next several months

Slide 12 – Title: Key messages

We’ve just got some key messaging to take away today. So, the most important message I think is to come to MPI early. It’s a complicated business and can take longer than you think to get underway exporting. It’s really important to know your product. Your product must meet New Zealand requirements first as well as any in-market requirements. And also, it helps to have a reliable person or importer in the market who understands the rules of their market as this will ensure all market requirements are met and you haven’t missed anything.

Slide 13 –   Title: ERAS contact details and thank you

So, if you have any question for us, our contact details are on the slide here. Don’t hesitate to get in touch but otherwise thanks everyone for watching our webinar today and keep an eye out on the future for our further webinars. Thank you!

[End of transcript]

Slide 1 – Title: An introduction to Overseas Market Access Requirements (OMARs)

Hi everyone, welcome, we’ll just make a start on the webinar. So thanks for joining us today, my name is Emma, and we also have John here who will also be presenting today. So we both work in the Exporter Regulatory Advice Service team, known as ERAS, which is a part of MPI.

Slide 2 – Title: MPIs Role in Exporting

So today’s session will cover general introduction to the Overseas Market Access Requirements, known as OMARs. This is our second webinar in our webinar series, where we will be hosting a webinar at the end of each month until October. As there’s quite a few people attending today, we will be keeping everyone on mute for the duration of the webinar. If you have any questions you’d like to ask you can submit them through that Q&A box, its at the bottom of the screen. So just enter them in there and we’ll go over them at the end.

The Ministry for Primary Industries is responsible for ensuring our primary industry export products meet export requirements and are fit for their intended purpose. We do this by setting regulatory standards for food and agricultural products, verifying that standards are met, and providing assurances to overseas markets. Exports of primary industry products are critical to New Zealand’s economy. Our work helps producers maintain the quality and reputation of our products, which supports export growth.

Slide 3 – Title: Who is ERAS

So just a bit of information on who we are. The ERAS team, we help businesses and existing exporters navigate through the requirements for exporting. ERAS offers support to all businesses, small and large, from those right at the start of their journey, to those with years of experience. To do this we offer 1 to 1 advice, education, and tools that enable exporters to more easily navigate requirements in exporting systems.

Slide 4 – untitled (picture of an export roadmap with the steps: meet NZ requirements à in market research à meet export requirements à export product

With exporting, we like to think of it like a journey. If you watched our first webinar, the export 101, you would have seen this roadmap, where we covered the entire journey. But today we’ll be focusing in on the meeting export requirements part of the journey. So I’ll now pass you over to John, who will take you into these export requirements in more detail.

Slide 5 – Title: Taking New Zealand to the world

Kia ora to everyone online, great to see we have people from different sectors. So you may be someone thinking about exporting, or you’re an established exporter, or you’re from an organisation that works with exporters. You’re all here because you want to take NZ to the world. So to do this, to get your product across the border, you must have market access. This is often negotiated between governments. And the rules and requirements may form the basis of documents like the Overseas Market Access Requirements. So today I’ll talk about what are Overseas Market Access Requirements, why they are important, the related documents, and some tips and considerations when reading these documents. Now unfortunately, what we can’t cover today is Overseas Market Access Requirements for a specific country or product, but we would be happy to take these questions offline via our exporter help email address.

Slide 6 – Title: Key terms

So before we kick off, I’d like to take a second to look at two key terms I’ll be referring to throughout this presentation. The first one here is OMARs, and you’ll hear me say OMARs quite a bit, and it’s simply an abbreviation for Overseas Market Access Requirements. The second key term is official assurance, and some of you may be familiar with Official Assurance in the form of an export certificate, and it’s a general statement to a foreign government or its agent about outcomes like food safety or NZ’s animal health status.

Slide 7 – Title: Overseas market access requirements are…

So lets begin with taking a look at what OMARs are. OMARs are export requirements for animal products that need to be met when exporting. These are additional to the New Zealand standard, and describes all standards that must be met. For example, if you are producing and supplying a product for sale in NZ market, and you are interested in exporting this product to an overseas market, then generally speaking you must meet the OMAR for that market, as well as any other export requirements. Or if you’re an exporter wanting to export product produced by another firm, then you have to meet the OMAR for that market you’re interested in exporting to.

OMARs are for anyone who supplies and processes animal products, including but not limited to processors and exporters. Some of the requirements in OMARs actually can start right from the start of the supply chain, right up until export. OMARs are minimum and known requirements of the importing countries. By meeting them you can reasonably expect your product to clear the border in the importing country. The requirements may be necessary or desirable to maintain other’s trust in New Zealand's system. OMARs are a trade facilitating measure intended to make the process of exporting easier.

Slide 8 – untitled (Venn diagram with two sections: New Zealand requirements, and country X import requirements; OMARs shown in the intersection)

So here we have a Venn diagram that shows the relationship between NZ requirements and import requirements of a hypothetical country X.

The overlapping group known as OMARs which are the additional regulated steps or processes to be applied which MPI expects should be sufficient for an exporter to reasonably expect their commodity to clear the border in the importing country. I should point out that OMARs are not the only export requirements. There are other export requirements that are applied generally to all exports, depending on the type of products being exported, and these may not be market specific. But the focus of today’s webinar however is overseas market access requirements.

Slide 9 – Title: Meeting OMARs is important

• Meeting overseas market access requirements is important because:
  It sets out the legal requirements that need to be met so that exported animal products will comply with the trade conditions which New Zealand, generally in consultation with the importing market authorities, has determined will apply.
• Not meeting the requirements may mean your product may not clear the border in the importing country.
• By meeting the overseas market access requirements, and all other relevant requirements, exporters can gain eligibility to request an Official Assurance, (so again, a form of an official assurance can be an export certificate) if it is required by the importing country

The New Zealand standard is not static and is continuously reviewed to ensure they stay fit for purpose, and may result in amendments. This may require the OMAR to be updated to reflect those amendments. Also there may be developments in importing country requirements which may require an OMAR update. That’s why it’s really important to subscribe to updates so you can continue to stay to in the loop.

Slide 10 – Title: OMAR requirements are a document set

Now that you’ve had an introduction to OMARs and why they are important, lets see what are the different OMAR related documents

So you have an OMAR for a market, OMAR notification and an FYI document, and I’ll briefly talk through these documents.

OMARs may be published in a market OMAR document – for e.g. China OMAR or the EU OMAR, and OMARs may also be published in the form of an OMAR notification document and some of you may be familiar with OMAR notifications. There’s actually is no legal difference between an OMAR and a OMAR notification. Both are NZ law and are export requirements. OMAR Notifications are used to set requirements urgently but are later consolidated into the OMAR. When the notification is consolidated into the OMAR, then the notification gets cancelled.

There are a few OMAR notifications that have a permanent existence because they are not market specific. For example: There’s an OMAR Notification for Certificates to be used for minor markets with no additional processing requirements.

FYI documents are guidance documents that provide guidance on exporting issues relating to animal products, or giving advance warning of changes coming. Often a lot of information contained in an FYI document gets consolidated into an OMAR document. OMAR notifications and FYI’s should be read in conjunction with the market OMAR.

Slide 11 – Title: Example

It might be helpful to quickly talk through how an OMAR is structured. Some of you may have seen one before but there are also people on here that haven’t, so let’s take a quick look at some screenshots of an example OMAR.
Here we have the cover page, this is an example so it says Animal Products OMAR but an actual one will have the name of the market before the word OMAR.

Slide 12 – Example (2)

Flicking through to the next page in our example OMAR, in the revocation section, it tells you which requirements are revoked or are no longer current, and also if an FYI has been incorporated then it will be listed here.

Slide 13 – Example (3)

Flicking through, this looks like the table of contents. Essentially it is divided into Parts and sections, and within each part there is usually a section on Application, Definitions, Prohibitions and Restrictions, Official Approvals, Audit and Supervision, Processing requirements, etc. etc. and also Official Assurances.

The Application and definition parts are key to understanding what exactly the requirements apply to and how they are defined.

The Official Assurances section can include information on which certificate should be submitted for different commodities, and which statements could be selected depending on the scenario.

There is also a part for products not intended for human consumption – so for things like petfood and rendering.

Slide 14 – Example (4)

This part of the OMAR here is not part of the requirements but it has some really good background information. The Amendment section in the middle of the page is really handy, because by referring to this section you can actually keep track of what has changed. Also the most recent amendment will be highlighted yellow within the OMAR.

Towards the bottom under ‘Other information’, is another really good section in the OMAR to read, because it has info on some of the things I talked about, and it also has information on guidance boxes within OMARs. Guidance boxes are boxes within the OMAR, and within it there’s information in italics and that information is for guidance and not part of the requirements. It’s there to explain or clarify requirements.

Slide 15 – Title: Handy tips to remember

Now I’ll quickly go through some handy tips or considerations to remember when reading OMARs.

• The General Part is as important as other Parts – it contains information that will be relevant to all Parts and should be read in conjunction with the product specific parts that you’re looking for information on.
• Definitions section – there is a definitions section in General and all other Parts. If in doubt about what terms mean then refer to this section.
• The Prohibitions/Restrictions section is another important section in the Parts to note. Prohibitions can range from ingredients to animal health related. And like I said, this Section may be located in each Part.
• The Amendments section, which I’ve talked about. That section is really handy to see what has been updated. Again, the latest amendment is always highlighted in yellow within the document.
• Remember that the OMAR should be read in conjunction with all relevant OMAR Notifications and FYI documents.
• Avoid printing off the OMARs because they are protected documents, and they can become outdated with any subsequent amendments to the OMAR. OMARs can contain important hyperlinks, and obviously when you print them off, you can’t access those hyperlinks.
• If you are referring to a OMAR for the first time, maybe try to avoid using the Ctrl + F function because you may skip relevant and important information.
• If you have access to an OMAR, and have questions about requirements then there are MPI contact details within the OMAR. But remember you can always enquire with your verifier, and remember that you can also confirm import requirements with your importer.
• If an OMAR is silent on something then we suggest you talk with your importer or your verifier.

So that’s it from me, I'll hand it back over to Emma now.

Slide 16 – Title: Market access requirements are continually changing

Thank you John. It’s important to know, as John has mentioned, that market access requirements are continually changing. If you don't already have access to read the OMARs, it’s important to be know that you Need to be a registered operator, animal products exporter, or third party agency/service provider to be able to apply for a password. And you apply for this password on the MPI website, and it gets sent to you. 

Another really great thing to sign up to, is on our website you can subscribe to notifications, which creates an alert, so that you’ll get an email when the OMARs gets updated or changed so that’s another really handy one. So an example of that would be if an Overseas market adds additional testing requirements for a product for whatever reason, you would get a notification once that OMAR has been updated, or a Notification document has been published on the MPI website. So that’s an example where it would be good to get the notification. So moving on to the next slide…

Slide 17 – Title: Key messages

We wanted to leave you with a few key messages today:

Firstly, overseas market access requirements are a trade facilitating measure; meeting them is a legal requirement and means you can reasonably expect your product to get across the border.

Secondly, take time to seek out all the relevant parts and sections in the OMAR that may apply, don’t skip sections in the OMAR. If the OMAR is silent on XYZ or any requirements and you need further clarification, then talking to your importer in the overseas market, or talking to your verifier are great options for you.

Lastly, signing up for those updates, notifications, to when the OMARs get changed is another really key tip from us.

Slide 18 – Title: Feedback

So today we’ve given you an overview on the OMARs role in the export system, but meeting these requirements are only one part of exporting. 

If you would like an overview of the whole exporting system from an MPI point of view, we have a recording of the "export 101" webinar we hosted last month.  This will be available to watch on the MPI website over the next couple of weeks, so please get in touch with us if you would like to get sent that recording.

Slide 19 – Title: Thank you 

That’s our contact details there, so if anyone had a really specific question about OMARs or a specific market to do with an OMAR or exporting in general, you can contact us there and we’ll have a look into it for you.

Great, so we’ll wrap up now everyone, thank you all for joining us today. We hope you all took something away from this webinar and we hope to see you at our future webinars as well. Thanks everyone.

[End of transcript]

Slide  1 – Title: Export certification for plants, wine and processed foods

Hi everyone, thank you for joining us today, my name is Libby and we also have Nicky here who will be presenting with me this afternoon. We both work in MPI’s exporter regulatory advice service, (or more commonly known as ERAS), and session is the third webinar in ERAS exporting 101 webinar  series that we're currently hosting.

A warm welcome back to those of the audience who we've seen before and also welcome to those new faces as well, thank you again for joining us for this session.

Slide 2 – Untitled (image of an export road map: Meet NZ requirements – In-market research – Meet export requirements – Get certification – Export product)
So for many of you in the audience this will now be a familiar picture. So we at ERAS like to think and talk about exporting as a journey, and what we're talking about today is right at the end of this journey. But being eligible for certification for some products often begins much earlier and the exporting journey, and so while certification is not required for every product to every market, it is important to determine if you will need it, as we think about getting ready export.

Slide 3 – Title: Export Certificate

What is an export certificate? An export certificate, or it can be known as an official assurance, is a document that provides an importing country with confirmation from MPI that your products meet certain known standards and requirements. Today we're going to talk about how you find out if you need certification issued by MPI, and if you do, how you get it.

We will focus on plants wine and processed foods and we're going to include some information on organic certification and how this works in addition to the other certificates. And we will also briefly touch on certificates of origin, which although not issued by MPI, we wanted to flag with you today because they are really good to be aware of. A very quick point of note is there are associated costs with obtaining certification, but we won't be getting into that detail today in this presentation.

Slide 4 – Title: MPIs Role in Certification

MPI’s role in certification – we’ve previously talked about MPI’s role in exporting, but specifically what's our role in certification? From our 101 session, we know that the Ministry for primary industries is responsible for ensuring our primary industry export products meet export requirements and are fit for their intended use.

Export certificates are issued by MPI to give official, government-to-government assurance about products exported from New Zealand, to this end. So essentially, they’re issued by us once we're satisfied that your product complies with the relevant regulations and requirements. Some of the statements that we are certifying against are things like the country of origin of the product and its ingredients perhaps, the treatments or other processes that the product may have undergone prior to export, and statements around the products health status - for example whether a certain animal or plant disease is present in New Zealand.

Slide 5 – Title: Plant products

Turning first to Plant Products. Export certification for plants products are called “Phytosanitary Certificates”; you’ll hear people call them – “phyto certs” or “phytos”, but the long, formal name is phytosanitary certificate.

A phytosanitary certificate confirms the importing country's phytosanitary requirements are met and provides MPI’s certifying statement that the consignment is considered free from pests of concern for that country, and practically free from other pests.

There are only 3 types of phytosanitary certificates that MPI issues. These are a standard phytosanitary certificate, a re-export phytosanitary certificate and something called a seed varietal certificate.

To find out if you need a phytosanitary certificate, there are documents called Importing Countries Phytosanitary Requirements or more commonly known as ICPRs, and they summarise the importing country’s phytosanitary requirements for both plant and forestry products. If you’re familiar with OMARs (Overseas Market Access Requirements), you can sort of think of them as the equivalent for plants products. However, unlike Animal Product OMARs the ICPRs don’t require a password to view them, they are available on the MPI website.

ICPRs are documents MPI publishes to help exporters to find and meet those importing requirements. These requirements are based on legislation, regulations, and clarification from the importing countries themselves. They will normally outline whether you will need something called an import permit and/or a phytosanitary certificate, as well as any other information that should be included on a certificate (if you need one).

Sometimes your product isn’t in the ICPR, or there is no ICPR listed for your country. In these cases, you will need to talk to either the local authority in the importing country or work closely with importer or an agent to get an import permit. The import permit would then determine whether you need a phytosanitary certificate. 

Slide 6 – Title: ePhyto

So how do you get an ePhyto if you need one? The certificates are applied for through a system called the ePhtyo system. The ePhyto system is an online platform that was developed by MPI to electronically manage the certification process. 

A bit of an overview of that process:

Firstly, a requestor (this could be an exporter or another organisation) raises a request within ePhtyo for a certificate. This request needs to include all of the supporting documentation around the product’s compliance to the requirements that apply to it. This can include something called a declaration of conformity (or a DOC) and it will also include the import permit when relevant.

Then secondly, the requestor’s nominated independent verification agency (IVA) will then verify that the conditions for the export to that country have been met, against the import permit, the ICPR, or the DOC.

Finally, the certificate can then be printed by either MPI’s Auckland certification unit, the IVA, or an MPI approved organisation.

Some differences in the process to be aware of for phytos, are certificates for consignments to France, Spain and Mexico need to be physically signed by the competent authority (so by MPI) after they've been printed. For all other destination markets, the certificate can be printed having already been electronically signed by MPI. So that’s a key difference to keep in mind.

Our team is actually currently working on developing some educational training type resources around using ePhyto, so if this is relevant to your business, look out for those. 

Nicky is now going to talk about certification for wine, take it away Nicky!

Slide 7 - Title: Exporting Wine

Thanks Libby. Ok, so I’m going to talk about fruit wine, cider, mead, wine products, and non-New Zealand grape wine, and the difference between that process and New Zealand grape wine.

When you’re exporting fruit wine, cider, mead, wine products, and non-New Zealand grape wine, MPI doesn’t have any export certification requirements, and to date no destination countries have required an official assurance for any of these products. However, some export markets may seek a free sale certificate to confirm that a product complies with New Zealand standards.

The process for exporting New Zealand grape wine is different. There are several steps you’ll need to do to ensure your wine is eligible for export, so I’m just going to go over those now:

So you’ll want to firstly ensure your wine meets export eligibility requirements. All wine for export must be made and packaged under a registered wine standards management plan (WSMP).

You can apply for your batches to be assessed for export eligibility. Each batch assessment can be done/you can apply for this using Wine E-Cert, which I’m going to talk about a bit in the next slide.

There’s testing - two samples from each batch of wine must be submitted to the Wine Export Certification Service, this is for sensory testing.

Then once your wine has been assessed and confirmed as eligible for export, you can include it in a consignment application, this is also using Wine E-Cert.

Only wine listed on the export eligibility statement can be exported, so please ensure you’re loading the correct wine when you load for your export.

The documentation that you might need would be your export eligibility statement, and an official assurance, if one is required for the country that you’re exporting to.

Getting your export eligibility statement: when we approve your request, an export eligibility statement will be emailed to you. This information is required to complete the NZ Customs Export Entry. A copy is also available for you to download in Wine E-Cert.

If you're exporting someone else's wine, they'll need to apply for an export eligibility statement on your behalf, so you’ll just need to get in contact with the person who’s supplying you the wine.

Getting official assurance: as part of your application for batch eligibility, you will need to make declarations for each batch of wine to show that your wine meets any relevant OMARs (or official market access requirements). If you are exporting to a country that requires an official assurance, this will automatically be generated as part of your consignment approval request. A printed copy of this document will be sent out. And there’s a guide in Wine E-cert if you want a bit more information about this,

it’s called ‘Creating a consignment request and obtaining export documentation’, so that’s just a wee guide in Wine E-cert to help you out.

If you need any additional documentation such as a Free Sale Certificate or a Free Sale Advice Statement, these must be requested separately.

Slide 8 – Title: Wine E-cert

So just a bit about Wine e-cert now. It’s a system which Ministry for Primary Industries uses to: track wine batches for export, establish whether wine batches are eligible for export from New Zealand, and to produce export documentation.

If you are a wine producer, bottler, or an exporter with your own wine brand, you need access to Wine E-Cert so that you can apply for approval when you’re exporting New Zealand grape wine. If you are a contract winemaker you will need access to Wine E-Cert so that you can confirm the winemaking details for your clients. ​

​Before you can use Wine E-Cert you must be set up as a user of Wine E-Cert. You may request access to Wine e-Cert in 3 steps. ​

​Firstly, you’ll want to register your Business and Users for Wine E-Cert access​.

Then you’ll need to create a RealMe account, because logging in to Wine Ecert is done with a Realme account. If you already have an existing account, you can use this to login to Wine e-Cert​, but if you don’t you’ll need to make a new one.

Lastly when you access Wine e-Cert for the first time using your RealMe account, you’ll need to provide an MPI Activation Key. MPI will email you one when your Wine e-Cert registration is processed.

Slide 9 – Title: Organics

Now we’re going to talk about organics. The term 'organic' is used for products that are made or grown according to organic production standards and that have been certified by a reputable independent organic certification agency. Not all organic certification bodies can certify your products to all overseas organic standards.
It’s important to remember that your products must be ‘legal’ before they can be ‘organic’. Exported organic products must meet both the general food regulatory requirements (such as labelling or composition) for their product type in the importing market, and they also have to meet the relevant consumer protection legislation in the destination market for you to market your product as “organic”. For example, if you export organic wine, you also need to meet all requirements for conventional wine, whether New Zealand grape wine or fruit wine. Then next, you need to make sure your wine is certified to the right organic standard, and that it is acceptable in the market or markets that you want to export to. 

Different standards and regulations apply in different markets for certifying products as organic.

Slide 10 – Title: OOAP Official Organic Assurance Programme

So I’m going to talk now about the OOAP, or the The Official Organic Assurance Programme. This was established in 2001 by MPI. The first market access arrangement was with the EU. This was followed by the United States, Switzerland, Japan, Taiwan and the UK (including Great Britain and Northern Ireland).

Products exported to these markets must have been produced and processed by operators participating in the OOAP.  Exporters must also be certified by a Recognised Agency (also known as an RA), and be registered with MPI.  There are 2 agencies recognised by MPI to do this: AsureQuality and BioGro New Zealand Limited.

If you are exporting to a market where New Zealand has secured a government-to-government agreement, products certified under the OOAP will be eligible for an “official organic assurance”, this is an organic export certificate issued by MPI to prove that your products are certified to the right organic standard.

If you are exporting to markets not covered by the OOAP, then you’ll need to find out what those organic requirements are. The Organic Exporters Association can help you find out what these are. You can either google “organic trade NZ”, or you can find them at www.organictradenz.com .

For each market, there is an “Organic Export Requirement: Overseas Market Access Requirement” (this is a special organic OMAR). The OMAR will spell out everything you need to know for exporting to the market, including instructions on getting an export certificate.

Not all products can be marketed as ‘organic’ in every market, so please check the OMAR carefully, because it will state what you’re allowed to market as organic. Exporters must be registered directly with MPI as an organic exporter. Only registered organic exporters with MPI can request official organic assurances for organic consignments, so that’s a really important step.

Slide 11 – Title: Free Sale Certificates / Free Sale Statement

Now we’re going to talk a bit about Free Sale Certificates and Free Sale Statements. If you are exporting food products manufactured in New Zealand, you may need a Free Sale Certificate or a Free Sale Statement to facilitate trade to some overseas markets.

If the food contains a significant amount of animal product ingredients (such as meat, dairy or honey) you may need other certification, so make sure you check the Overseas Market Access Requirements (OMAR) for the relevant country that you want to export to, just so you can find out if a certificate is required. But if you are exporting food or food-related products, the importer in the destination market will be able to tell you if you need a Free Sales Certificate.

If you are applying for a Free Sale Certificate or a Free Sale Statement for the first time, you must register as a client with the Ministry for Primary Industries. Then you can complete the CERT1 form and email it to the address on the registration form. You can email that together with your Free Sale Statement or Free Sale Certificate application, so you can do them both at the same time.

When you get a Free Sale Certificate, this is issued for food manufactured in New Zealand, and it helps with clearance of your consignment in foreign markets that require a statement about the food's safety and suitability. To apply for a Free Sale Certificate for food exports, you can use the CERT2 form available on our website.

You'll also need to get a manufacturer’s declaration form from your manufacturer, confirming that the product meets all applicable standards for food safety and suitability.  Ask the manufacturer to complete a CERT3 form (this is also available on our website) and you can get them to email it to you, and you can use this when you apply for your Free Sale Certificate.

For grape wine exports you’ll need to apply for a Free Sale Certificate through Wine E-Cert, just because that process is a little bit different.

For Free Sale Statements – these are also issued for food manufactured in New Zealand. The difference is this helps with a food product's registration in a foreign market before its first entry. To apply for a Free Sale Statement you can use the CERT4 form, also available on our website.

As well as the Free Sale Certificate for grape wine exports, you’ll need to apply for a Free Sale Statement through Wine E-Cert also.

Note that all cert forms mentioned today (that I’ve mentioned on this slide), are found on the Free Sale Certificates and Free Sale Statements section on our website, there’s just a page there with instructions and links to the forms.

I’ll pass it over to Libby and she’s going to continue.

Slide 12 – Title: Animal products

Brilliant, thanks Nicky.

We did also want to (only briefly) mention certification for animal products today. Often certification for animal products are somewhat confusingly referred to as a couple of different names: health certificates, veterinary certificates, export certificates and official assurance.

To find out if you need official assurance for a consignment of animal products you need to refer to the relevant market’s Overseas Market Access Requirements (OMAR). If you attended our last webinar you will be familiar with OMARs of course, and if you didn’t, we will be making a recording of this session available online shortly.

Certification for animal products is entirely managed through an electronic platform called AP E-cert. AP E-cert is quite a large topic and so we have actually decided to host a bit of a bonus webinar in 2 weeks’ time, just focused on AP E-cert. So I will say no more today, but I encourage you to attend that session if it is relevant to your business.  

Slide 13 – Title: Certificates of Origin (COO)

Great, and finally today, we come to certificates of origin. Certificates of Origin (or COs) are issued by accredited New Zealand Chambers of Commerce. They are often requested by importers, so we did feel it was important to include them in this session. These certificates certify the place of growth, production or manufacture of goods exported from New Zealand. Only goods produced in New Zealand will be issued a CO of New Zealand of course, but there are alternative certifications that exist for goods that were produced elsewhere.

COs are issued online or manually. Most markets now accept electronically certified COs. But, where a manual certification is required by a market, this can be known as ‘wet-stamp’ certificate, in these cases the certificate will need to be collected, or it can be couriered to you as well. For more information on this type of certificate, you can see the Export Documentation section of the New Zealand Chambers of Commerce website. So if you have an importer ask you about that, that’s where you can turn to for some support.

Great, next slide Nicky.

Slide 14 – Title: Key messages

Finally, we have arrived at the end of our presentation. So, we did want to take the opportunity to summarize the key messages, the things we really hope you take away from today’s session if nothing else.

The first of those is to know that certification is only one element of being export ready and is often dependent on decisions that you make earlier in your exporting journey. If you would like an overview of exporting and missed our first 2 webinars, like I say, we are going to make recordings of those available online soon, and we encourage you to watch those.

Secondly, where you check if you need a certificate, which one you need, and how to get it varies considerably, obviously depending on your product, so that’s good to keep in mind.

And also importantly, certificates (generally speaking) can’t be issued retrospectively, and so it is important to know if you need one early on, and to ensure that your supply chain maintains export certification eligibility if you do.

Again, depending on the product, you could need more than one type of certification - so for example as Nicky was explaining to us around organic products, or if your product contains multiple ingredients, sometimes you’ll need multiple certificates.

And finally, come to MPI early, come to us early. ERAS is absolutely here to help with any and all questions.

Slide 15 – Title: Thank you

Right, thanks everyone for joining today. And we’ll hopefully see you at the next one!

Cool, thanks guys, see you later.

Slide 1 - Title: Export certification – an insight into the AP E-cert system

Kia ora everyone and thank you for joining us today.

My name is Emma Forbes and I also have Daniel Palmer here who will also be presenting to you today. So we both work in MPI’s Exporter Regulatory Advice Service (and that’s known as ERAS for short). This is our 4th webinar in our Exporting 101 webinar series. A welcome back to those in our audience who we’ve seen before and welcome to those new people, so it’s good to have you all here.

The webinar today will be focussed today on the Animal Products Electronic certification system, and this will be referred to as AP E-cert for short. ​As a part of this webinar today we will be talking about how you can raise an eligibility document and then how that links in with getting your export certificate. ​

Please note that this webinar is on how to use the AP E-cert System for raising certificates for animal products, so we won’t be focussing on any market specific requirements in AP E-cert. And just as a heads up, if you’re not exporting animal products such as meat, honey, dairy for example, then generally you wouldn’t need to use the AP E-cert system. So that’s just one thing to keep in mind.

The way we run our webinars is that we will keep everyone on mute for the duration of the webinar and ask that if you’ve got any questions, you can pop them through the Q&A box, which is either at the bottom or top of your screen on your wee zoom toolbar. Just to let you know that this webinar is being recorded today, so we will have a copy of the recording available on our website and youtube for people to watch if they missed out today.

Slide 2 - Title: untitled

For many people in the audience today this may be a familiar picture now as we’ve had it in our other webinars. In the ERAS team we like to think about exporting as a “journey” – and what we’re talking about today is right at the end of this journey and that’s all about getting your certification for your product. So once you’ve met the NZ requirements, done your market research and met export requirements, you can then apply for your certification, or when exporting animal products, export certificate.

Slide 3 - Title: MPIs Role in Certification

So we just wanted to explain MPI’s role in certification.

You can see there, MPI helps ensure products are fit for purpose, MPI negotiates market access, we provide official assurances to overseas markets, and we also identify export opportunities.

So export certificates are issued by MPI and they give official government to government assurance for products that are exported from NZ. Export certificates are issued by us when we're satisfied that your product complies with the relevant regulations and requirements.

Statements on export certificates, they’ll include information like:

The country of origin of the product and its ingredients, any treatment or other process the product has undergone prior to export, and the product's health status – so that’s all about clarifying if there’s an animal or plant disease present in New Zealand.

Slide 4 - Title: AP E-cert system, Eligibility document, Export certificate

So moving on. I just thought it would be good to give an overview of some key terms we’ll be talking about in this webinar. So firstly, yep, the AP E-cert system which this webinar is all about, so that is the online system that you use to issue export certificates for animal products. And that’s for markets that require official assurances.

An Eligibility document, also referred to as EDs for short. That’s a transfer document raised by an operator in the RMP supply chain, and that is approved by a verifier that confirms a consignment of an animal product is eligible for export. So once you’ve done your eligibility documents, or EDs for short, you would then use those to apply for your export certificate which comes last. And that again provides the importing country with confirmation from MPI that your product meets those known standards and requirements.

So if you’re wondering, how do I know if I need an export certificate? You would then, to find this information out, you’d need to look at the Overseas Market Access Requirement documents, they’re known as OMARs for short, as that will specify a lot of the time if you need to get an export certificate. In some cases it’s not clear; if it’s not clear if you need an export certificate, the next best step is to contact your importer in your destination market, or get in touch with the market access team here at MPI.

So I’ll now be passing over to Dan, who’s going to talk you through some of our guidance materials.  

Slide 5 - Title: Guidance materials

Hello, so recently, last year our team put together some guidance materials for users of AP E-cert, and these are illustrated here, I’ll go through them. On the left hand side you'll see two quick reference guides for raising an export certificate or raising an eligibility document, these are sort of designed to be printed out and put it next to your computer on your desk while you're raising them and it's like a check/checklist of everything you need to check when you’re raising them, things to watch out for, thing that you might miss, the format of putting things in certain boxes like source certificates and stuff like that, and things to check off before you hit the submit button.

In the middle, there’s a diagram of the various stages of the E-cert process, right from the start of the farm all the way to the consumer overseas. Those numbers indicate various different stages that the product will be going through, from storage, manufacture, that sort of thing, all the way through to the number 5: certification stage where it gets the certificate and the overseas authorities view the certificate and it goes to your importer.

On the bottom is a AP E-cert walkthrough module which we put together. This guides you through how to raise an export certificate either from a single final ED or the multiple source EDs. It will guide you through all the various boxes; it’s completely free of charge to use and it shows you that you start at the top on the left and it will take you right down to the bottom in terms of raising your certificate.

On the bottom right hand side is in an AP E-cert glossary. There's a lot of terms that you kind of need to be familiar with when you're using E-cert, such as consignor, consignee and various other ones that can be confusing when you’re just starting out. And the glossary is also good to quick reference to when you're starting out.

And on the top right, we've got two YouTube videos which our people put together. The top one is exporting journey of an animal product and it details - it's only a two minute one that one - and it's just a brief description of what happens in the exporting process for certification. And the second one is more the detailed look at the process of certification from start to finish and we're gonna have a look at that video now.

Slide 6 - Title: Video

---video plays---

[Visual: The title "Exporting Journey of an Animal Product, A Closer Look at Certification" is displayed.]

After watching the video of the exporting journey, you understand a bit more about what animal products that require official assurance need to go through to get to the customer.

Now we'll look at the certification process in more detail, and your part in making sure it runs smoothly.

A lot of factors in documents help ensure an animal product is safe and suitable when it reaches the customer.

Take turtle milk for example. After leaving the farm, the turtle milk is processed.

[Visual: A bottle-filling machine with an operator.]

During its processing journey, the turtle milk can go to different premises at different locations. Every location has a separate risk management programme, also known as RMP. The RMP is a written programme designed to manage the hazards, wholesomeness, and labelling of animal material.

[Visual: A Risk Management Programme checklist. The list has 4 check boxes - safe, suitable, truthful labelling, and meets New Zealand food safety requirements.]

This ensures the turtle milk is fit for purpose, safe, suitable, and has truthful labelling. Every time the turtle milk moves from one RMP premises to another for processing, it needs a new eligibility declaration or ED.

EDs are electronic transfer documents that are raised to track the process the product goes through. They need to accurately capture all the information required to guarantee their quality and safety standards, and market requirements have been met at each step of the journey.

[Visual - A laptop showing an eligibility declaration. The required details of turtle milk are entered into the fields of the ED, then a stamp reading "MPI Verified" appears.]

The required information as in the Overseas Market Access Requirements or OMARs.

Once the turtle milk is fully processed, it's moved into storage and the final ED is created.

[Visual: A container carrying the fully processed turtle milk reaches the storage place. A laptop with the final ED document appears.]

The final ED compiles all the information from the previous EDs, including additional information, test results, and classification for the turtle milk to be eligible in the intended market. Once the final ED is verified, the exporter can use it to raise an export certificate in the AP E-cert system.

The AP E-cert system is an electronic certification system that tracks processing and movement of products. It's here that exporters will document that their product meets manufacturing and market requirements. When exporters raise the certificate, they need to read the relevant OMAR to check if official assurance is required.

The OMAR tells exporters the requirements they need to meet for the destination market and specific requirements for their product, in this case, turtle milk.

The OMAR also provides the exporter with the template number they'll need to use in the AP E-cert system. Once the export certificate has been submitted, it's checked by an MPI certifier.

[Visual: An MPI certifier checks the export certificate.]

They either approve the submission or return it for resubmission. Having to resubmit an export certificate due to missing or incorrect information will cost the exporter time and money. However, if the export certificate is approved, the product will successfully arrive at the destination market. This shows the destination country's competent authority that the product has met their official assurance requirements.

[Visual: A ship with large containers arrives at a port.]

If the turtle milk arrives without an accepted export certificate to accompany it, or the export certificate isn't approved by the competent authority in the destination country, the milk might not be allowed into the market. It could sit at the destination port until an approved eligible export certificate arrives. In this case, the exporter needs to contact MPI within 24 hours.

[Visual: The exporter talks to MPI on his phone.]

Issues not only affect the exporter, but the industry as well. If something goes wrong with the turtle milk, this can impact the turtle milk industry and bring their quality standards into question. In turn this can impact New Zealand's relationship with the destination country.

Delays, rework, and errors can cost time and money, damage industry reputations, or cost New Zealand an exporting relationship. Every step of the turtle milk journey determines if the milk can be collected by importers and made available for customers.

To make sure the turtle milk reaches customers' hands at the end of the process, each step needs to be followed and all the documentation needs to be accurate, completed at the right time, and approved. Because at the end of the day exporting correctly means your products such as turtle milk is at its highest quality when it gets to your customers.

[Visual: Visit mpi.govt.nz/exporting or mail exporterhelp@mpi.govt.nz New Zealand Food Safety, Ministry of Primary Industries, Manatu Ahu Matua.]

---video ends---

Slide 7 - Title: Animal Products E-cert Gateway

OK, so we'll start off by looking at the first page that you'll look at when you go to that E-cert link. This is an example of the gateway page for the training site - so you can tell its the training site because it's got a pink bar at the top, so when you log into the site even when you’re logged into the main system and it's got a pink bar at the top, then you’ll know you're in the training site and not live site.

So this is the gateway page, and the login button is the RealMe button right in the middle of the screen. There's also a link to the RealMe page right underneath that, so if you need to get your RealMe login sorted out you can just click on that link it will take you to the real me page. So I’ll just run through the shortcuts and links in the left hand side of the screen. This is a good link to the E-cert application form, EC01 which I'll talk about in the next slide - that's for the setting up new users. There’s a link to the E-cert billing form so if you’ve got a brand-new company that's never used E-cert before you'll need to fill out the billing form there's a link there. If you've already got people using E-cert and you just want to add a new staff member in, you don’t need to use the billing form.

Underneath there is the link to the billing guide or E-cert charges; a brief description of how these are done is you get a charge for each E-cert transaction that you make and a per second charge for each time it takes for the system the process your transaction. Now that sounds a bit confusing but it can loosely be translated to how many sort of options you click on the E-cert application and how many certificates you submit and the time it takes the system to process those requests. So if you do a search for all the certificates you've done in the last five years, that will take a long time for the system to find. So that's an example of the per second charge that it would do. Same would go for if you had a large certificate or eligibility document with lots of sources, it's more likely to take the server a longer time to process than if it's a simple certificate with less sources attached to it. 

There’s also the terms and conditions underneath that, so that's just the rules that people/users have to abide by to use the system.

There's a quick link to the overseas market access requirements as well, just as a kind of reminder that it's a good idea you've got two screens to have the OMARs open on the other screen to help you raise your export certificate.

Underneath that there's a suspend users form, this is for sending a quick email through, a quick-form through to our E-cert admin team, who will be able to suspend users who don’t need to be using the system anymore, I'll talk about that a bit later on, another option.

This is a bookmark link so you can quickly bookmark E-cert without having to Google it every time. And at the bottom there's some XML data for people who use XML data systems and batch files which I won't be talking about this webinar.

Slide 8 - Title: How do I get access?

OK how do I get access. Access as I mentioned is always done through the E-cert EC01 application form. It's very simple form. Use this even if you've got access but you need it to add something else on. So let's say you're a freighting company just got another client and you need to add another license then you'll still need to use this form, but you just click ‘no’ in the section A and  get that filled out. So you fill out your name and details and you’ll also need to have your RMP code and exporter license handy to put on the form, you then sign the section regarding the rules. And if you are a company that's raising a certificate on behalf of someone else, maybe a consultant or a logistics company, you'll need to get it signed off from a manager from that company so you've got, we know that you've got permission to use that particular license and RMP code. Because once you've got access that means you have access to all of the certificates for that license.

Passwords are handled by RealMe, so if you forget what your password is please contact RealMe and they can reset it for you. It's always best to get that reset rather than create a new one.

These forms take around 1-2 days for the E-cert team to process so it's good to allow a bit of time if you've got an urgent consignment coming up and you know you'll need access to this.

Slide 9 - Title: How do I raise an eligibility document (ED)? (1)

So how do you raise an eligibility document, ED?

For a lot of people using E-cert, you'll have customers sending you EDs into your premises and then you'll be adding a process and then sending it out. So the easiest way to find this is to click on the ‘most recent in’ at the top, and it will show all the ones that have come into your premises that have been approved (if they haven't been approved they won't show up), and you should be able to find it in the list if you know what to look for. Alternatively, you can get your customer/your supplier to tell you what the number is, and you can type it into the magnifying glass in the top right hand corner. You'll need to use the full E-cert number, which format is NZL, then the year, 2021 and then your RMP code, and the number of certificate followed by T.

If there is only one ED that you’re wanting to use for your ED, then you can click on the cog once you've opened the ED and click on ‘use for ED’ and it will copy all the information over, and all you'll need to fill out is the certificate number and the processing details from your premises.

Slide 10 - Title: How do I raise an eligibility document (ED)? (2)

If you're raising your ED from multiple sources then you'll need to click on the ‘new certificate eligibility document’ option at the top, and I've done an example there highlighted how you type those in. So the ones I've used there, there's two eligibility documents and I'm using product 5 from the first one and product 1 from the second one. If you're using all the products from both of those sources you don’t need to use the comma and number, you can just add them in.
Things to check when you're raising an ED.

One of the main ones is country eligibility, sometimes -this is something your verifier will check - and sometimes certain markets need to have your premises/processing premises, or store, or manufacturing place registered with that country. You can find the list of countries for those particular commodities on our country listings page if you aren't sure.

And once you’ve entered the transport details at the top, you will be entering the processing details in the product section on the right hand side. So there's a drop down list and then you add all the process types that are happening at your particular premise, so it could be storage, chilled storage, frozen storage, manufacturing, processing or any of the options that appear on that list. You then put the dates that that happened, it usually starts on the date that it came in, and then the date it leaves, usually.

Slide 11 - Title: Raising an export certificate

Once you’ve raised the eligibility document and pushed the submit button, it will be saved in our system and your verifier will be able to see it. If it's hidden you can contact them and they can have a look at it; they're the only ones who can get it approved.

Raising an export certificate. So there's two ways you can do that, usually there's what we call a final ED and the final ED is an ED that's from, usually the store, and it goes from there to the exporter ID. And anyone who raises the exporter certificate will be able to click on ‘most recent’ and it'll appear in their list, and they can open that ED, and then click on ‘use for export’, it will copy all information over, and all the person raising the export certificate will need to mainly concentrate on is editing/putting the transport details and the importer’s address, and concentrating on the attestations that will appear on the template. This is where the OMAR will be very useful to you on the screen next door to you raising a certificate. It will guide you on what you need to fill out on the template. It will tell you which template you need to use, and sometimes there will be optional attestations that you fill in and there could be stuff like: mixed origin statements (where you’ll need to put in what country it came from, or what parts of it came from), or temperature levels (where if your product was heat treated for example or anything like that); it really depends on the market that is going to and the type of product that it is.

Most certificates are approved in the Auckland cert unit at the airport because that's where most of the products leave New Zealand from. In the middle of export certificate page, after you put the importer details in and the departure date, is the delivery despatch details. So you choose how you want your certificate couriered to you, the address you want it sent to, and which signing office you want to use. So you can get them done in other places, other than Auckland, if you choose this option. There's also an email address that you can fill out here that will just let the person who you put in that email address that this certificate has been approved; it won’t send that person a copy of the certificate, but it will let them know that it's been approved.

Slide 12 - Title: Tip & tricks

So lastly I thought I’d go through some tips and tricks for using E-cert that people may not know about. Next to the new certificate option in the main menu are the following options here: the ‘help’ is giving access to the full help files, which may be pretty much details everything you could possibly need to know about E-cert in great detail. It also gives help on raising batch files in XML if you want to learn how to use that. Some people use that as a way of just submitting certificates rather than logging into the site and typing everything out.

The problem report is if you see a computer error message when you’re using AP E-cert, so that’s not to be used if you get a message back from your verifier. That would be something where, like, if it crashes or something like that, you could fill out that problem report, which is like an incident report which goes straight to our IT E-cert helpdesk team who should be able to help you with that. And the ‘contact us’ is also a quick email link to that same IT helpdesk for E-cert.

This ‘list templates’ is quite a helpful feature, it will list all the templates available in AP E-cert. And you can filter it by country or commodity. And it also has the attestations there, which you can export into a spreadsheet.

The ‘version history’ will give you a breakdown of upgrades and if any changes have been made. E-cert generally gets bugs and changes made usually as a response to like a market requesting different options available on their certificates, or if there’s bugs that we need fixing that people have possibly identified in a problem report. So those changes and fixes will appear in that list.

And the ‘User report’, as I mentioned in the first slide, this is something that you should probably run a few times maybe every month. And that will give you a list of everyone who works, who has access to your AP E-cert for your premises or for your exporter license. So if you know that someone used to work for you, and you’re not sure if they’ve still got access, its good to run this report and it will give you a list of all of them.

And that’s it from me.

Slide 13 - Title: Key messages

Thanks for that Dan. So we just wanted to take the opportunity to now summarize some of our key messages for today.  

Firstly, as we mentioned earlier, we have an array of AP E-cert guidance materials available on our website to use, including that video if you wanted to watch it again. But if you still have a few questions on how to use the system after looking at the resources, we can help with that, so just email through your questions and we can help. 

Secondly, so a lot of using AP E-certs and exporting animal products, there’s questions around a products eligibility. And those sorts of questions are best to go to your verifier, as they can help you out with this and clarify that.

Thirdly it’s really important to refer closely to those Overseas Market Access Requirements or OMAR documents when you’re using AP E-cert, as this will tell you what certificate template number you need to use for you product going to a specific market or country.

And lastly, so our team are currently working on a new training programme. So that’s going to involve providing 1:1 advice to exporters and businesses, and providing in-person training workshops, so stay tuned for that. 

\Slide 14 - Title: Thank you!

Cool, so just as an FYI, we’ve hosted – today’s one will be our fourth webinar – but we have completed three webinars before this, and they will be hosted on our exporting webinars webpage, that we’ve just created. So at the moment we’ve got exporting 101, you can see here it has been uploaded, but these will be getting uploaded as time goes on. So if you have any colleagues or other people in your team that missed out today or would benefit from this, we’ll be sending out a link to this webpage for you guys to refer to if you wish.

Cool, so thanks everyone for joining us today. Just remember the ERAS team, we’re here to help; our contact details are on the screen there.
After today’s webinar, we’ll send out a follow up email, and that will just contain the presentation slides and our resource pack, which has a whole bunch of information on exporting, and some of the resources we’ve created. And that will also include links to those AP E-cert specific help tools as well, like the video, so keep an eye out for that.

We have another webinar planned for the end of this month, and that’s going to be based on, focused on rather, risk based measures, and that’s basically the registration that food premises and other premises in New Zealand need to get when they’re exporting. So if you’re interested we’ll be sending out a link to all the attendees today and you can sign up once we’ve got that all organised.

Thank you everyone, we’ll wrap it up now, but just get in touch with us if you need help with exporting – cool, thank you!

[End of transcript]

Slide 1- Title: Risk Based Measures: Food Act 2014, Animal Products Act 1999 & Wine Act 2003

Alright, so hello and thank you for joining us and thank-you so much for your patience as well.

My name is Libby, I’m probably familiar to some of you – I work in MPI’s Exporter Regulatory Advice Service (much more commonly known as ERAS). And so today is our fifth session of ERAS’ 6 part Exporting 101 webinar series.

Like I say, we’re joined today by Ali who is the Team manager of the Appraisals team which sits within the wider Approvals team here at MPI and Abbie, who hopefully will join us soon, is an advisor in MPI’s Food & Beverage team. They both bring a wealth of knowledge in their respective areas – so a big thank you to them for joining us and for sharing your expertise with us this afternoon.

I would also like to extend a warm welcome back to those in our audience who have attended some of our previous webinars and also welcome to the new names in lieu of faces as well – thank you all for joining us for the Risk based measures webinar.

So a little reminder, the way we run our webinars is we’re going to keep everyone muted for the duration of the session and if you have any questions throughout we would ask you to submit them in the Q&A function which you should find either at the bottom of your screen or possibly at the top. So you pop them in as we go along and we will answer those at the end.

Slide 2 - Title: N/A

Right, so we like think and talk about exporting as a “journey” – and this is a bit of a high-level journey map. Crucially, you’ll see that it is not a linear one.

What we’re talking about today begins right at the very start – So meeting New Zealand requirements. And when we’re talking about Risk-based measures today we’re talking about the different legislated plans or programs to manage risk, that New Zealand businesses need to operate under depending on what product you’re handling and how you’re handling it.

So risk-based measures are also integral to be eligible for that certification that we’ve talked about in our previous two sessions as well. And so that’s good to keep in mind.

And so today –

Slide 3 - Title: Today we’re talking about:

Ali is going to provide some important background to Risk management programmes under the Animal Products Act – He’s going to breakdown the life cycle of an RMP – from development through to cessation and give us an overview of your responsibilities as an RMP operator.

And then all going to plan, Abbie is then going to join us to talk first about Food Control Plans and National Programs under the Food Act. What are they, who needs one and why and also how to set one up when you do.

And also, she’s going to talk to us about Wine Standards Management Plans (WSMP) under the Wine Act.

We’ll then close with an opportunity for you to provide feedback on today’s session, some key messages, and then finally we’ll look at your questions and we’ll fire them to our experts to answer.

So I’m just going to skip through a few slides now to get to Ali’s material and we’ll get in to the substance of today’s presentation.

Take it away Ali.

Slide 4 - Title: Animal Products Act 1999; Risk Management Programme (RMP)

Thanks Libby. Good Afternoon everybody, as mentioned already, we’re talking here about the fundamentals that you must know at the earliest stage of the exporting journey. I’m going to start talking to you now about risk management programmes under the Animal Products Act 1999 and the correlation of why an RMP is very important in a person’s export journey. So if you are processing animal material or animal product for export then it is very important that you understand that an RMP is the foundation of all export eligibility.

The first important question one needs to ask is where does the RMP mandate come from and why? The answer it is the Animal Products Act 1999. Now what problem was the act established to address – let me just start by saying that the Act was established upon the understanding that foods of animal origin present one of the foremost risks to the health of humans and other animals because of the potential to transfer animal diseases, harmful organisms, chemical residues or other contaminants to humans and other animals.

The problem that the Act seeked to address how we identify and then eliminate, minimise, or manage these risks. Now the roll of the RMP is to be the primary mechanism for the management of these risks and the outcome of using an RMP is that the animal product is fit for it’s intended purpose and that it meets the appropriate New Zealand standard and therefore eligible for trade including export. As some of you may know, we are a member of the World Trade Organisation and as such we have the obligation to have appropriate risk management mechanisms in place to prevent the spread of animal diseases in the way we trade in animal products. So again, as mentioned, an RMP is therefore the primary key that unlocks export eligibility.

Now to the next slide please.

Slide 5 - Title: What is an RMP?

Now what is an RMP? RMP is defined in the Animal Products Act as a programme designed to both identify and control, manage and eliminate or minimise hazards and other risk factors in relation to the production and processing of animal material and animal products to make sure that the resulting animal products is fit for its intended purpose.

An RMP generally contains information such as the identify of the operator, the animal products processed by the operator, premises where processing takes place, procedures the operator will use for identifying, controlling and managing the risks and it is based on the principals of HACCP.

So you see now the length of this definition in the Act and the mandate for establishing it in the first place and its role in export edibility as described in the previous slide.

Furthermore, each RMP is tailored to the risk reasonably likely to occur in a business, depending on the animal material involved, the process used and the product range.

Third slide please.

Slide 6 - Title: Who must have an RMP?

Now in this next slide we’ll talk at a high level about who must have an RMP.

Firstly, you must have an RMP if you are a primary processor. Unless you’re exempt by regulations. The term primary processors defined in the Act, so please do look it up. But in essence a primary processor basically one who carries out the first level of processing after the primary production. So if you’re using meat as an example, lambs in particular, the raising of the lambs would be primary production and the actual slaughtering and dressing of the lambs would be primary processing. Everybody who is involved in primary processing will have to have a risk management programme in order for their product to be eligible for export.

Now if you carry out any form of dairy processing, it is very important that you remember this - all form of dairy processing is considered by the act as primary processing meaning that all dairy processors therefore must operate under an RMP unless exempt by a regulation.

So I’ve looked up the regulations for you, so you don’t have to, current regulations only exempt dairy processors, who are not farm dairy operators, from having to have an RMP if they operate under the Food Act. The thing you must remember, that if you are a dairy processor and you operate under the Food Act, your products will only be eligible for the domestic market and for Australia.

But not for any other country for that matter.

Also you must have an RMP if are a dual operator butcher. Meaning you are a retail butcher and you also do home kill and you process recreational catches. The reason for this is dual operator butchers do both regulated and unregulated processing. The regulated part being the retail part, and the unregulated part being the home kill and recreational catch part. So mandating the RMP means that the proper separation is in place and the risks are well managed between the regulated and unregulated activities. It’s very very important to note, that if you are a dual operator butcher, your products are not eligible for export regardless of whether they’re processed under the regulated side of things meaning your retail side or the unregulated side of things meaning your recreational home kill side.

Also you must have an RMP if you are a secondary processor – secondary processor is also defined in the Act. Basically means any process after the primary processing stage. So if you are in that category you must have an RMP unless one of these two apply. You elect to operate under the Food Act or you are exempt under regulations under the Animal Products Exemptions & Inclusions Order 2000.

But please, please, please remember, if you elect to operate under the Food Act instead of having an RMP under the Animal Products Act there are consequences to your export eligibility. Meaning basically that if you are a secondary processor and you elect to operate under say for example a food control plan or a national programme under the Food Act instead of an RMP under the APA, under the Animal Products Act, then your products cannot be exported to countries that require export certificates from us.

Fourth slide please.

Slide 7 - Title: Life cycle of an RMP; From development to cessation

Now in this part I’ll just talk to you at a very high level about the lifecycle of an RMP from development all the way to the point of cessation or the point where they die.

Let’s start with development. So this is the responsibility of the processor; you are responsible for developing your RMP and there are generally 3 ways in which you can do this. You can base your RMP off a MPI approved template or a code of practice where one is available. Number 2, you can create your own RMP - that’ll be one that is tailored specifically to your type of processing and you can do that by following the RMP manual published on the MPI website. Or, if you are currently operating under a Food Control Plan under the Food Act you can convert that into an RMP do get in touch with MPI, and we can advise you on how you do that.

There are more details on the MPI website to help you, so please do check it out.

I’m going will jump onto the next part which is validation.

Validation is effectively the process of collecting evidence which shows your RMP can consistently produce animal material and animal products that are fit for their intended purpose. An example of this would be providing evidence that you’re complying regulatory limits for heat treatment for example. Again, there are very helpful resources on the MPI website so do look it up. And sometimes you may provide an RMP and there are part that you’re not able to validate and we have the ability to give you the registration conditional upon validation of those parts at some later stage in which case you can agree with MPI on a validation protocol to be able to do that.

Next part is evaluation, you will need to get your RMP evaluated if you created your RMP without using a template or are converting a Food Control Plan from under the Food Act into an RMP. So an evaluation is effectively a review of your RMP by a recognised evaluator, recognised by MPI to make sure that the RMP is valid in terms of all its contents, the fact that it can produce animal products that are fit for purpose. Again, if you use an MPI template then no evaluation is needed unless you change any of the sections in there and that may need to be evaluated.

There are lots of resources available online for this - including, list of all the recognised evaluators that you can use so please do look that up.

In the next part of the process is registration. This is the stage where you apply to MPI for registration of your RMP. The application package will generally include a copy of your RMP, a letter from the verification agency to confirm that they will indeed be providing verifications services to you, the evaluation report from the evaluator where that is applicable, the completed application form and the application fee. The timeframe for processing the application is generally varied depends on the complexity of the application itself but as a matter of business practice we normally allow it 20 working days. But it could be done well within that timeframe if it’s a simple enough application.

Again, there are helpful resources online all about the registration process and what you need to do.

Next step of the process is verification. After registering your RMP you must get it checked regularly by an MPI recognised verifier. This will ensure you’re meeting the legal requirements. How often your operation is verified will depend on your compliance history and your choice of markets that you are selling to, whether domestic or export.

So there are fees associated with verification and we strongly recommended that you know, discuss this, look into this, before you make your choice of the verification agency that you chose to provide verifications services to you.

The last part of the process there is when your RMP die, there are two situations where this can happen. It would happen temporarily if you voluntarily suspend your RMP. You have the power under the Act to suspend your RMP for your own reasons. Or it can be done mandatorily by MPI for non-compliance. And your RMP may cease permanently if MPI decides to exercise its power under the Act to de-register it because of compliance issue or you as the operator just want to surrender it. In which case, the RMP will cease permanently.

Off to the next slide, our final slide for this part of the presentation. It’s effectively like a summary of your general obligations as the RMP operator.

As an RMP operator you’re obligated to do all these things. Comply with the relevant requirements of the Act, including the requirements set out in your registered RMP. Ensure that the RMP is consistent with the applicable legislative requirements. Adequately implement and resource all operations under the programme, including the provision for instruction, competency, and supervision of all your staff. Ensure all operations under your programme are commensurate with the capability and the capacity of the premises, equipment, and your staff. And you make sure you give your relevant verifier the freedom of access to enable them to carry out their activities as mandated under the Act.

And of course there are consequences under the Act for failing to comply with these duties. This may vary from suspension, de-registration or even prosecution in the worst cases.

That concludes this part of the presentation for us.

Thanks Libby.

[15:07]

Awesome, thanks so much Ali.

Slide 8 - Title: Food Act 2014; Food Control Plans (FCP) and National Programmes

Take it away Abbie.

Cool thanks Libby. Hi all, so as Libby said I’m Abbie and I work in the Food Regulation Directorate at MPI but more specifically in the Food and Beverage Team. So, today I’m going to be talking about the Food Act.

Slide 9 - Title: Food Act 2014

The Food Act 2014 is risked based and outcome based so the old food act focused more on the premises; floors, walls and ceilings as a way of making safe food. But the new Act sets a risk based, outcome-based regime. We support our food businesses by providing them with tools to ensure they know and understand their risks and how to manage them so that they can prevent things going wrong. We also ensure that they always have adequate procedures for when things do go wrong. So, the Act sets the framework for ensuring that food sold in NZ is safe and suitable. Basically, the Act sets the domestic market requirements and exporters may be required to meet obviously additional requirements depending on I guess the market they’re going to and their specific requirements.

Safe and suitable food is defined as so safe food is food that won’t make people sick and more specifically the young, the old, the pregnant or immune compromised. And suitable food means it meets compositional, labelling and identification requirements and is in the right condition for its intended use.

So, the act promotes food safety by focusing on the processes of food production and the people who make the food. We focus on ensuring that everyone involved in production of food understands their role in ensuring safe and suitable food is made and sold. We have over 60 councils and 15 recognised agencies that are basically our boots on the ground and they’re checking on our behalf that food businesses are actually following the rules.

Slide 10 - Title: Risk Based Measures

Onto the risk-based measures – so we’ve got this cool diagram here which shows the difference risk based measures and the risk that they have. The higher the risk, the more prescriptive the requirements are.

So for Food Control plans, which is the purple bar, they’re written plans for managing food safety and suitability in high risk businesses. For example, food service and retailers which usually includes cafes and restaurants, manufacturers of dairy products, manufacturers of fresh ready to eat salads, manufacturers of meat poultry or fish, wholesale bakeries. So those types of people who are a lot higher risk than our national programmes.

Under the Food Control plans there are two types – there’s a Custom Food Control Plan where the business develops their