New Zealand operates one of the strictest biosecurity regimes in the world, for sound economic reasons: the primary sector is a large share of export earnings, and an incursion of a significant pest or disease would be catastrophic. For importers, the practical consequence is that biosecurity, not customs duty, is the border issue most likely to delay or destroy a shipment.
Import Health Standards
The controlling document for most regulated goods is the Import Health Standard — an IHS issued by the Ministry for Primary Industries setting out exactly what must be done for a commodity to be allowed entry.
An IHS specifies permitted countries of origin, required treatments, documentation, inspection requirements and any post-entry conditions such as quarantine. They are commodity-specific and they are updated, sometimes at short notice in response to a pest detection overseas.
The single most common importer error is working from an old copy. Check the current IHS on the MPI website before every shipment of regulated goods, not once when you set up the supply arrangement.
Where consignments most often fail
Wood packaging. Pallets, crates and dunnage made of solid wood must be treated and marked in accordance with international standard ISPM 15, showing the treatment mark. Untreated or unmarked wood packaging is a leading cause of holds, and the consequence can be fumigation at your cost, re-export, or destruction — on a consignment where the goods themselves were perfectly compliant.
This catches importers of machinery, tiles, stone and industrial goods who never thought of themselves as importing anything biological.
Contamination. Soil, seeds, plant material, insects and animal residue on or in containers and goods. Vehicles, machinery and outdoor equipment are high-risk and frequently require cleaning to a standard well beyond commercially clean.
Documentation. Phytosanitary certificates, treatment certificates and manufacturer’s declarations must match the consignment exactly and be issued by the recognised authority in the exporting country. Small discrepancies — a container number transposed, a treatment date outside the required window — cause holds.
Undeclared risk goods. Food, plant products, animal products, used equipment and biological materials all carry requirements. Sending a sample of a food product by courier without checking is a reliable way to lose it.
Transitional and containment facilities
Many goods must be moved to an approved transitional facility for inspection, devanning or treatment before biosecurity clearance. Operators of these facilities are accredited, and using an appropriate facility is part of the compliance path rather than an optional convenience.
Where goods require post-entry quarantine — live plants and some animal products — the timeframes and costs are significant and need to be built into the commercial case before ordering.
Costs of getting it wrong
A biosecurity hold typically produces some combination of inspection fees, treatment or fumigation costs, container demurrage and storage, delayed delivery to your customer, and in bad cases re-export or destruction at your expense.
None of these are recoverable from MPI, and whether they are recoverable from your supplier depends entirely on what your purchase terms say about compliance with New Zealand import requirements. Put that obligation in your supply agreement explicitly.
Practical steps
- Identify whether your goods are regulated before you order. MPI publishes a searchable tool for import requirements by commodity.
- Read the current IHS and give your supplier a written specification of what they must do and what documents they must provide.
- Specify ISPM 15 compliant packaging in your purchase terms, and ask for photographs of the treatment mark before shipment on new supplier relationships.
- Use a licensed customs broker or freight forwarder experienced in your commodity. Biosecurity expertise is not uniform across brokers.
- Build inspection time into your lead times rather than promising customers dates that assume clearance on arrival.
- Keep the documentation, since MPI can audit and the importer must be able to substantiate compliance.
MPI publishes Import Health Standards, the import requirements search tool, transitional facility information and biosecurity guidance free at mpi.govt.nz. For a new commodity or a new supply country, a conversation with MPI before the first order is free and considerably cheaper than a destroyed consignment.
General information only. Requirements change — confirm the current Import Health Standard with MPI.
