2. Check destination market requirements for wine

• On this page:

• Check wine OMARs
• Need help with OMARs?
• When exporting to a country with no OMAR
• Check if there are other market requirements
• Other steps to exporting wine

Check wine OMARs

Some countries have special requirements that you have to meet. These include labelling and official assurance requirements, and rules about oenological (winemaking) practices. You need to check the Overseas Market Access Requirements (OMARs) for your destination country. There are 4 OMARs you may need to look at:

• Wine to USA – OMAR [PDF, 59 KB]
• Wine to the EU – OMAR [PDF, 293 KB]
• Wine to Great Britain – OMAR [PDF, 224 KB]
• Wine to Brazil – OMAR [PDF, 308 KB]

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. Verifiers will check that winemaking records are consistent with these declarations.

If you are exporting organic wine, you should also check if there are any requirement documents for exporting organics

Need help with OMARs?

If you're unsure of OMAR requirements, consult the New Zealand Winegrowers International Winemaking Practices guide. This guide is available to New Zealand Winegrowers' members on its website. The guide explains permitted oenological practices for the European Union (EU), Great Britain and Brazil, as well as other key markets. 

New Zealand Winegrowers website

You can also contact MPI.

Get help with exporting

When exporting to a country with no OMAR

Most countries do not have certification requirements for wine exports.

If there is no OMAR for your destination country, we recommend you work directly with your importing agent to check for certification and any other requirements.

Check if there are other market requirements

Besides meeting general wine export requirements, some countries also require you to include particular documents or official assurances with your consignment.

Official assurance means a general statement issued by MPI to a foreign government (or its agent) attesting that certain conditions apply.

MPI issues the documents listed in this table to help you access these markets.

How to request statements and certificates

You can request all these documents, except Cultivar Certificates and Free Sale Certificates for Ukraine, through Wine e-Cert.

If you need help, a help guide is available in Wine e-Cert called Creating a consignment request and obtaining export documentation. Or email wine.certification@mpi.govt.nz

If you need Cultivar Certificates or Free Sale Certificates for Ukraine – or you're asked for an export document not in the table – email wine.query@mpi.govt.nz

Other steps to exporting wine

Find out what else you have to do to export wine