Support for airline food restrictions

KVH is supporting Ministry for Primary Industries (MPI) considerations to make changes to the amount of food air passengers can bring into New Zealand.

Due to the sheer volume of food being carried by passengers (sometimes longer-term visitors arrive with suitcase loads), border staff are spending hours not only considering biosecurity risk items but also identifying and clearing goods that don’t pose any threat. KVH’s view is that this is not sustainable and that a completely new approach should be looked at to better manage the risk posed by food carried by an increasing number of international passengers arriving at our airports every day.

Options KVH supports are limiting the amount of food that passengers can arrive with (e.g. less than 1kg), or alternatively charging the passenger for the time and costs involved in clearing the food.

MPI is currently discussing the matter with airline representative groups who are keen to work together to make improvements to the current system.

KVH will keep growers updated on any developments in this area.