Chinese officials are visiting New Zealand to reach an agreement on how to ensure there are no repeats of the embarrassing incident where NZ meat shipments were held up due to a certification change.
Officials from China's General Administration of Quality Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine - commonly known as AQSIQ - will hold talks with counterparts from the Ministry for Primary Industries.
Chinese embassy officials told the Herald China "attached great importance" to its relationship with New Zealand and valued NZ's quality food products exports. The visit was geared to ironing out any problems and reaching agreement on a way forward.
The visit comes after Food Safety Minister Nikki Kaye announced a wide-ranging plan aimed at strengthening and protecting the country's "food assurance systems "to match the rapid growth in infant formula exports primarily to China.
Kaye has requested an audit of NZ's existing regulatory regime around infant formula to identify any areas for improvement, including work on verification, compliance and testing regimes. She also wants to ensure New Zealand's Overseas Market Access Requirements (OMARs) keep pace with changes being introduced in Chinese regulations for infant formula.
