Travellers entering New Zealand Aotearoa from Indonesia will no longer be allowed to bring in meat products, Biosecurity New Zealand deputy director general, Stuart Anderson announced today.
While higher risk uncooked meat products had already been prohibited, travellers could, up until now, bring in declared cooked and treated meat products into the country.
The new rule does not affect commercial products which currently face strict import standards.
Mr Anderson said any meat products brought in by travellers from Indonesia would be safely destroyed.
“Biosecurity New Zealand is committed to reviewing biosecurity settings where required and we’ve taken several steps in recent weeks to boost our protections,” he said.
“Those include stepping up checks at airports, introducing disinfectant mats for people returning from Indonesia to clean their footwear, an awareness campaign targeting travellers, an on-the-ground audit of the palm kernel supply chain in Indonesia, the establishment of an FMD Readiness Taskforce to ensure all our preparedness work is refreshed and providing personal protective equipment, disinfectant, backpack sprayers and other tools to Indonesia to help on the ground, as well as our technical expertise.
“Although the risk of the recent outbreak in Indonesia to New Zealand remains low, we remain on high alert,” Mr Anderson said.
