What’s The Issue - Animal and Plant Health NZ

New Zealand’s economy depends on a productive and profitable primary sector.

Our farmers and growers are facing big challenges such as climate change, emerging biosecurity threats, productivity, doubling export value and market access. And they need tools to enable them to manage these challenges and succeed.

Animal and plant health products are essential for the primary sector. Without reliable access to a broad toolkit, farmers, growers, and veterinarians cannot protect animal welfare, maintain crop health, or meet market access requirements.

Getting their hands on tools that are safer, more effective, less hazardous and lower residue products, many of which are already available to overseas competitors, is being stifled by complex and ineffective regulation.

New Zealand’s regulatory system for agricultural and horticultural products is effective at managing risk, but it does not consistently provide timely, efficient access to products that farmers and growers need.

Long timelines, uncertainty, inconsistent requirements, and disproportionate risk settings are impacting global decisions to keep bringing products, innovative or currently available, to our farmers, growers, and veterinarian.

Supply chain resilience is now a strategic priority, not a background issue. Global instability, including the Middle East situation, has exposed how vulnerable New Zealand is as a small, distant market.

New Zealand is particularly exposed — small market, long supply lines, limited domestic manufacturing.

This is why regulatory reform is now a supply‑chain resilience issue, not just a process issue.