New Zealand | Animal Policy Int.

Our work in New Zealand

Animal Policy International works in New Zealand on the gap between domestic animal welfare standards and the standards applied to imported animal products. We produce research and legal analysis, work with farmers and welfare organisations and brief parliamentarians and officials. We also run public-facing campaigns to support reform.

The Gap

New Zealand has banned farming practices such as sow stalls and battery cages on welfare grounds, in response to sustained public concern. These bans do not apply to imported animal products. The result is that products produced using practices banned in New Zealand continue to be sold on New Zealand shelves - undermining domestic legislation, disadvantaging higher-welfare New Zealand farmers, and, in some cases, shifting demand to producers in countries with weaker standards.

Example: New Zealand's pork imports

~60% of pork consumed in New Zealand is imported.
~90% of imported pork comes from countries that permit sow stalls - a practice banned in New Zealand since 2016 following sustained public concern.
New Zealand's market is small relative to global pork production: applying domestic welfare standards to imports would affect less than 2% of any exporter country's total output.

Source: API analysis of FAO data, Vision Into Action report (2025)

Public and farmer support

79%

of New Zealand farmers want imported animal products to meet New Zealand's welfare standards.

Curia Market Research, 2026

Over 80%

of Kiwis agree imported products should respect the same welfare standards as those applied domestically.

Horizon Research, 2024, 2023

Support is consistent across party voter bases, age groups, and the rural-urban divide. This level of cross-spectrum public and producer agreement is rare in New Zealand policy debate.

The policy context

Closing the welfare gap is a live policy question in New Zealand, regularly raised in parliament and across multiple stakeholders and mainstream and rural media.
New Zealand is actively negotiating new free trade agreements. Without provisions to apply

New Zealand welfare standards to imports, these agreements risk increasing imports produced using practices banned at home.

Cross-stakeholder support for import standards is unusually broad. NZ Pork - the industry body representing New Zealand pig farmers - has called for imported pork to meet New Zealand welfare standards for years, arguing that the status quo leaves local producers disadvantaged. SPCA and the New Zealand Animal Law Association, and farmers across dairy, pork, beef and sheep sectors have publicly supported the policy. Polling has consistently shown majority support across the public, farmers, and voters of every parliamentary party.

The most significant live policy opportunity is the Animal Products (Closing the Welfare Gap) Amendment Bill, a members' bill sponsored by Green MP Steve Abel and entered into the parliamentary ballot (the "biscuit tin") in May 2025. The bill was launched at Parliament alongside an 11,000-signature petition which was presented to the House and referred to the Foreign Affairs, Defence and Trade Committee.

In December 2025, parliament passed the Animal Welfare (Regulations for Management of Pigs) Amendment Bill. The bill drew widespread submissions and parliamentary discussion of low-welfare imports.

The Vision Into Action report - submitted to parliament and cited in parliamentary debate - sets out a feasible policy mechanism consistent with WTO rules and New Zealand's free trade agreement obligations.

Our approach in New Zealand

Research and legal analysis. Our New Zealand reports - Closing the Welfare Gap, Legality of Closing the Welfare Gap and Vision Into Action - together provide the legal, economic, and supply-chain analysis underpinning the policy case.

Working with farmers and farming organisations. We work alongside New Zealand farmers to make the level-playing-field case to the government - a position New Zealand Pork has long advocated. The 2026 Curia farmer poll showed 79% of farmers in favour - and the Fair for Farmers campaign, developed with farmer voices, puts farmers at the centre of the public case.

Public morals and democratic mandate. New Zealand banned sow stalls in 2016 and battery cages in 2023 in response to sustained public concern. Under GATT Article XX, WTO rules recognise the right of countries to align trade policy with established public moral positions, provided standards are applied consistently to both domestic and imported products. Our public-facing work - including Stop Cruel Imports - supports the democratic mandate underpinning the policy case. Our work complements that of welfare organisations, including the SPCA, who share the same policy goal.

Featured publication

LATEST REPORT · 2025

VISION INTO ACTION: Applying Animal Welfare Standards in Import Policy (2025)

An analysis of how New Zealand animal welfare standards can be applied to imports under WTO rules and free trade agreement obligations. Economic modelling estimates potential growth in the domestic pork sector of $17.2–29 million annually.

Read the report →