Mistakes made by New Zealand's Ministry for Primary Industries in changing templates for meat export certification were responsible for delays that left about $NZ100 million ($A89.95 million) of New Zealand meat sitting for weeks on Chinese wharves, an investigation has revealed.
MPI released the findings of its review of the blunder earlier this year on Thursday afternoon - and says it will work to strengthen relationships with Chinese regulators after initially blaming them for the debacle.
A heavily redacted report into the blunder found while MPI's 2012 name change from the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry was communicated extensively to Chinese officials, New Zealand's post in China failed to pass on a letter in November advising the name change would come into effect on March 1.
MPI staff were unaware the letter was not forwarded, and only notified China's Administration of Quality Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine's (AQSIQ) meat import division of the implementation date on February 6, 23 days before it came into effect - rather than the required one-month notice period.
On February 19, AQSIQ requested changes to the draft meat certificates - which was translated to MPI and New Zealand's China post two days later.
However, a New Zealand official in China already recognised it would not be feasible to complete the work to satisfy AQSIQ by March 1, and discussed reverting to the old certificates with MPI.
MPI misunderstood what was meant by "old" certificates and from March 1 began using the new, unapproved ones - resulting in the meat delays.
The misunderstanding was not realised until May 3, four days after meat exporters flagged the problem on April 29.
MPI officials thought the problem could be cleared within days, but the issue hit headlines on May 17, and New Zealand officials did not meet with AQSIQ until May 21 to try to work through the issue.
However, AQSIQ refused to verify the delayed consignments until new certificates were issued, which took several more days.
The report identifies a number of other MPI failings:
* officials did not raise the issue with senior staff
* ministers were not told until May 14
* on May 18 and 20, Food Safety Minister Nikki Kaye was told the ministry was not at fault
* MPI did not establish a formal response structure for the issue until May 23.
The report found MPI may have a systemic problem with elevating matters internally.
It recommended 25 management actions, which will completed by July 2014, including:
* developing a China strategy, investing in more staff and more training, and strengthening relationships with Chinese officials
* doubling staff in MPI's Wellington-based market access team to 16
* a new issues management system with the meat industry
* improving escalation processes.
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