Primary Industries Minister Nathan Guy has given assurance delays in future meat exports to China can be avoided.
Mr Guy said the Ministry for Primary Industries was not under-resourced or under-staffed, but simply made an error in not alerting Chinese officials to changes in export certificates.
The Labour Party is calling on the Government to boost resources at the industry after a review that found systematic failings left millions of dollars worth of New Zealand beef and lamb sitting on Chinese docks for weeks.
Labour's primary industries spokesman Damien O'Connor said there had been 90 redundancies at the ministry since January last year and there are 48 vacancies in the compliance area.
Mr Guy said the ministry has begun making extensive changes to its internal processes and will employ more compliance staff.
