Natural Health Products NZ Welcomes Pro-export Policy

Natural Health Products NZ is welcoming the export exemption regime announced by the Government today and is hopeful it will remove long-standing export barriers for dietary supplements.

For more than a decade, Natural Health Products NZ has been advocating for a fix to NewZealand’s broken and outdated dietary supplement regulations.

"We support the Government’s efforts to cut red tape and make it easier for food exporters toget on with their business of exporting, creating jobs and getting our economy growing," said Samantha Gray from Natural Health Products NZ.

A discussion document released today proposes removing the requirement for individual export exemption applications and assessment by the Ministry for Primary Industries (MPI) for food exporters. Four options are proposed with MPI stating that exemptions ‘may be able to be applied to dietary supplements for export’.

"This is a good move while our members await the replacement of the recently repealed Therapeutic Products Act which could take years. It’s really important that these changes include dietary supplements in the new export exemption pathway."

NHPNZ said at the time of the repeal that our industry needed an urgent exemption from complying with outdated export regulations which was hampering our ability to grow.

"Under current laws, supplements produced for export must meet domestic standards as well as the standards of the export market for areas such as health claims and labeling requirements.This creates an unlevel playing field for Kiwi exporters and in some cases effectively blocks New Zealand exports to some markets."

Everyone agrees the current rules for dietary supplement exports are broken and this is holding back growth and jobs in the natural health products industry.

"Our industry currently exports more than $650 million every year and employs thousands of New Zealanders. It is estimated exports could double if export barriers were removed."

We wish to thank Ministers Hoggard and Costello for prioritising this work and we will be encouraging them to ensure the proposed new exemption process includes dietary supplements. The case for change is overwhelming and urgent," said Samantha Gray.

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