The Government has made sweeping changes so farmers, growers, and vets can maximise economic growth and productivity by safely and swiftly accessing new agricultural chemicals and veterinary medicines.
Food Safety Minister Andrew Hoggard said the changes proposed in the Agricultural Compounds and Veterinary Medicines (ACVM) Amendment Bill, introduced on the 11th of May, reduce barriers to innovative new products while making sure any associated risks are dealt with proportionately.
The amendments remove avoidable complexity and focus regulators on real risks and speeding up the process for considering novel products.
One way the Bill will achieve this is by enabling greater reliance on the assessments of trusted overseas regulators when evaluating risks and benefits.
“I consider there is no good reason our primary sector should be waiting on work that has already been done by other reputable agencies outside of New Zealand,” said Hoggard.
“The changes will also focus regulators on what matters so that products that are known to pose a lower risk will get a quicker pathway to authorisation by exemption and not require registration.”
Although the current framework has served New Zealand well, a Ministry for Regulation review last year found that improvements could be made, and these amendments to the ACVM Act reflect those findings.
The ACVM Amendment Bill works in tandem with the Hazardous Substances and New Organisms (HSNO) Amendment Bill, also introduced earlier this week. Novel products cannot be registered under the ACVM Act until they have approval under the HSNO Act.
Together, Hoggard said the Bills will establish a more adaptive regulatory framework that maintains safety, supports trade competitiveness, aligns with international best practices, and improves timely access to agricultural and horticultural products.
The Bill also modernises and strengthens the framework for assessing novel products by:
- supporting efficient and timely decision-making by moving time limits for registration, currently identified in the ACVM Act, to regulations
- strengthening the independent data assessor framework by clarifying how data assessors can be recognised by the Ministry for Primary Industries as providers of this service to industry
- making processes relating to applications, variations and other matters clearer, more consistent, and more flexible
- enhancing transparency by improving public notification of applications
- strengthening provisions relating to reassessment and suspension of products, to ensure Greater protection of trade and public health.
This Bill will be considered by the Primary Production Committee and, after public consultation, is expected to return to Parliament for its final readings in late 2026.
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