---
title: "New Zealand's ACVM pathway for importing veterinary medicines"
author: codebuddy
type: article
series: cross-border-compliance
desc: "MPI's ACVM import entry point for veterinary medicines and agricultural compounds into New Zealand — the administrative home for the ACVM layer that also covers medicated pet feeds. Navigation page only; deeper conditions are honest-pending."
source_topics: NZ_MPI_ACVM_IMPORT_VETMED
date: 2026-08-18
---

# New Zealand's ACVM pathway for importing veterinary medicines

New Zealand regulates veterinary medicines and agricultural compounds through the **ACVM** regime administered by the **Ministry for Primary Industries (MPI)**. The MPI *Importing veterinary medicines ACVM* page is the official agency entry point for bringing these articles into New Zealand.

## What the entry point establishes

- It is the MPI import pathway for "veterinary medicines" under "Importing agricultural compounds and veterinary medicines (ACVM)".
- MPI provides a contact for import questions: **approvals@mpi.govt.nz** (subject: Importing veterinary medicines).
- For biosecurity clearance of veterinary medicines, MPI directs queries to **animal.imports@mpi.govt.nz** (subject: Biosecurity clearance of veterinary medicines).
- The page is part of MPI's ACVM import regime covering agricultural compounds and veterinary medicines.

## Relevance to pet food

Medicated pet feeds and veterinary medicines imported for use in or with animal feed pass through this **ACVM import pathway**, which establishes the **import administrative home (MPI)** for the ACVM layer of pet food. In practice, any pet-food-adjacent veterinary medicine or medicated feed input entering New Zealand funnels through MPI/ACVM rather than a separate pet-food-only channel.

## Honest gap

The landed page is a **navigation / summary** page; it does not state the detailed import-approval conditions. Deeper MPI sub-pages were WAF-blocked (Imperva/Incapsula) even via relay and remain **honest-pending** — the specific approval steps beyond the entry point are not yet captured first-hand.

## Sources

- `NZ_MPI_ACVM_IMPORT_VETMED` — MPI *Importing veterinary medicines ACVM* page (first-hand, C1-verified): ACVM import regime, the two MPI contacts, and the honest gap on deeper WAF-blocked sub-pages.