A recent Biosecurity New Zealand survey shows risk from express freight is being well managed.

Carried out from December 2019 to February 2020, the survey found express freight items arriving in New Zealand were almost 100% (99.996%) compliant with biosecurity requirements.

Express freight is air cargo that has guaranteed delivery times and is often delivered directly to the door.

The survey was prompted by an independent review of passenger and mail services last year, which recommended Biosecurity New Zealand test the assumption that express freight is low risk.

Electronic import documents are currently screened to identify anything that needs to be examined further, however the survey suggested further work to ensure the actual contents of parcels match what is declared. As a result, Biosecurity New Zealand says it will look at ways to beef up verification, including ongoing surveys, screening with mobile x-ray machines and increased use of detector dogs.

The survey involved examining nearly 2500 parcels across five express freight companies.