Importing Indonesian Tropical Plants
to New Zealand.
A regulatory and logistical roadmap for New Zealand plant retailers, rare aroid collectors and commercial nurseries importing live flora from Indonesia. Three parts of the New Zealand regime decide the economics of an order: an MPI Permit to Import must exist before dispatch, every species must appear in the Plants Biosecurity Index, and the plants then spend a minimum of three months in post-entry quarantine before biosecurity clearance — a minimum that applies unless the schedule of special entry conditions states otherwise. That quarantine period, not the flight, sets the date the stock becomes saleable.
MPI Permit to Import before departure; a registered transitional facility must be nominated
At a transitional facility registered with Biosecurity New Zealand, unless the species schedule says otherwise
Auckland is the primary live-cargo gateway; a Christchurch arrival moves under biosecurity custody to the Auckland-region quarantine facility
HS 0602.90.00 is duty-free; GST is 15% of the New Zealand value plus duty, freight and insurance
What the New Zealand importer must have in place before dispatch
1. A Plants Biosecurity Index entry for every species. Before an order is placed, each botanical name must be checked in MPI's Plants Biosecurity Index for an entry specification that permits import, such as a basic nursery stock listing or a genus-specific schedule. A species that is not listed is legally a new organism, and it cannot enter without an assessment and approval from the Environmental Protection Authority. No permit application can rescue an unlisted species, which is why this check comes first.
2. A Permit to Import from MPI. Nursery stock requires an official permit before it departs the exporting country, applied for through the MPI animal and plant import permit portal. MPI aims to process a complete application within 30 working days, so the permit is on the critical path rather than a pre-flight formality. A consignment that lands without a permit is refused, and reshipment or destruction is at the importer's expense.
3. A nominated post-entry quarantine facility. A permit for whole plants is not granted unless the importer nominates an approved transitional facility for post-entry quarantine registered with Biosecurity New Zealand. In practice the importer contracts or leases space in that facility before applying, because the permit application asks for it. The facility charges are the importer's cost, separate from the plants and from freight.
4. A New Zealand Customs Client Code. Commercial importers need a client code issued by the New Zealand Customs Service (Form NZCS 224) in order to lodge entries and interact with MPI border systems.
5. A CITES export permit, if the line is a listed taxon. For artificially propagated Appendix II taxa the Indonesian CITES export permit is issued by the Ministry of Environment and Forestry (KLHK). That export permit is a different document from the New Zealand permit, which the Department of Conservation issues as New Zealand's CITES Management Authority, and the original Indonesian export permit is presented and surrendered to DOC at the border, not to Customs. Foliaria supplies the Indonesian export permit; the New Zealand permit is the importer's to arrange.
6. Confirmation of the current standard. The import conditions described here are those of the Import Health Standard 155.02.06, the import health standard for plants for planting, as retrieved from MPI's requirement documents for plants for planting, where the operative version of the standard is published. Requirements and the list of permitted facilities change, so the importer must confirm the current version of the standard and the current import conditions with MPI before ordering, and treat this page as orientation rather than as the operative text.
The clearance sequence, order by order
Where the importer sits in the chain decides which documents have to exist before the plants leave East Java.
Before ordering — Plants Biosecurity Index check
Every species on the proposed order is checked in the Plants Biosecurity Index for an entry specification permitting import. Species that are unlisted, or listed as requiring assessment, are removed from the quotation at this stage; importing one without EPA approval is not a compliance risk to manage but a prohibited act.
Before ordering — transitional facility and permit application
The importer secures space in a transitional facility registered with Biosecurity New Zealand for post-entry quarantine, then applies for the Permit to Import through the MPI portal. MPI aims to process a complete application within 30 working days. If any line is CITES Appendix II, the KLHK export permit is applied for in parallel, because it also has to exist before the flight.
Before dispatch — Barantan inspection and phytosanitary certificate
The consignment is washed to complete bare-root condition, treated where the permit requires it, and inspected by Badan Karantina Indonesia, which issues the IPPC phytosanitary certificate. The certificate is issued in English or with an official certified translation, carries the additional declarations set out in the MPI permit, and records the active ingredient, concentration, duration and date of any pre-export treatment. The import health standard does not allow the phytosanitary certificate to be issued more than 14 days before shipment, so the Barantan inspection and the certification it produces have to fall inside that window, before dispatch. The standard gives no booking lead time for the inspection itself: confirm the lead time Barantan needs for the inspection booking directly with Barantan, and do not assume a figure from this page.
Pre-arrival — Trade Single Window declaration
The importer or their broker lodges the electronic import declaration through the joint Customs–MPI Trade Single Window 24 to 48 hours before arrival. A customs client code is required to lodge it. Where the customs value exceeds NZ$1,000 an import declaration is required; consignments at or below that figure follow a simplified path, but the biosecurity requirements do not change with the value.
Arrival — Auckland or Christchurch inspection and BACC direction
MPI officers verify the original phytosanitary certificate, the permit, the air waybill and the invoice, and inspect the packages at the cargo facility for packaging integrity, pest leakage and unauthorised soil or media. Because plants for planting cannot receive final clearance at the airport, MPI issues a Biosecurity Authority Clearance Certificate directing the consignment, under biosecurity custody, to the post-entry quarantine facility named on the permit. The registered transitional facilities for post-entry quarantine are in the Auckland region, so a consignment that lands at Christchurch cannot begin quarantine there: it has to be moved from Christchurch to the Auckland-region facility under that same biosecurity custody, and that domestic movement sits inside the arrival timeline, ahead of potting and the start of quarantine. A buyer planning a Christchurch arrival has to schedule the movement as part of the arrival sequence rather than as something arranged once the cargo is on the ground.
Post-entry quarantine — a minimum of 3 months
The plants are potted into sterile media inside the registered facility and held. Under Import Health Standard 155.02.06 the quarantine period is a minimum of 3 months unless otherwise stated in the schedule of special entry conditions, the nursery stock must be actively growing throughout, and an inspector determines when clearance may occur — the standard still uses the older term MAF Inspector. Two qualifications matter commercially: some species and origins carry a shorter requirement under their schedule, and nursery stock from MAF-accredited offshore plant quarantine facilities may be imported under predetermined conditions with a reduced post-entry quarantine requirement. A buyer should ask MPI which of the two applies to the species on the order before pricing the stock.
Release — biosecurity clearance to the nursery
Periodic inspection continues through the quarantine period. Any quarantine pest found during it results in treatment, destruction or re-export at the importer's cost. When the inspector is satisfied, biosecurity clearance is given and the plants may leave the facility for the importer's nursery.
Taxa and goods Foliaria does not ship into New Zealand
A page that only lists what can be shipped is marketing. These are the categories that are closed, restricted, or conditional — check them before you build a range around a species.
Soil and growing media — prohibited. Soil and organic growing media cannot travel with the consignment, and dirt or soil on the roots results in rejection at the border. Every Foliaria consignment is washed to complete bare-root condition with no planting medium, and plants are potted into sterile media only after arrival, inside the quarantine facility.
Species outside the Plants Biosecurity Index — prohibited. A species that is unlisted, or listed as requiring assessment, is legally a new organism and cannot be imported without an Environmental Protection Authority assessment and approval. This is the binding constraint on the range, and it is checked per species rather than per family.
Myrtaceae — highly restricted or prohibited. The family is restricted because of myrtle rust (Austropuccinia psidii), and lines in it are not quoted without an entry specification that expressly permits them.
Host plants of Xylella fastidiosa — conditional. These are subject to emergency measures and to specific laboratory testing and certification, so they are treated as conditional lines rather than catalogue stock.
National Pest Plant Accord species — prohibited. Species on the Accord are unwanted pest plants whose importation, propagation and distribution are prohibited under the Biosecurity Act. Foliaria checks every catalogue line against the Accord and the Index before dispatch and will not ship a restricted line into New Zealand.
CITES: the export permit that must exist before shipping
New Zealand enforces the CITES Convention through the Trade in Endangered Species Act, with the Department of Conservation (DOC) as the CITES Management Authority. For artificially propagated Appendix II taxa — orchids, Euphorbia, Ceropegia, tree ferns and similar lines — the consignment needs an Indonesian CITES export permit issued by the Ministry of Environment and Forestry (KLHK). That export permit is not the same document as the New Zealand permit: the Indonesian permit authorises departure from Indonesia, while the New Zealand permit is issued by DOC as this country's CITES Management Authority. The original Indonesian export permit is presented and surrendered to DOC at the border, not to Customs, which does not administer CITES here. Wild-collected Appendix I and Appendix II material is prohibited or strictly restricted and is not part of the Foliaria export range.
CITES permits are generally physical, wet-signed and stamped security-paper documents; an electronic exchange is accepted only where an agreed e-CITES protocol between KLHK and DOC has been verified. Permits are therefore couriered with the consignment documents rather than emailed, and a missing original stops the clearance even when the phytosanitary certificate is in order.
Air cargo first, quarantine second
Foliaria ships bare-root nursery stock by air from East Java. Air transit to New Zealand is a 4 to 6 day carrier estimate, subject to inspection and customs queues. The post-entry quarantine period sits after arrival and is not part of transit: a minimum of 3 months applies unless the schedule of special entry conditions states otherwise, so the release date a buyer should plan around is the end of quarantine, not the arrival date.
Auckland Airport is the primary gateway for live botanical air cargo and has dedicated MPI biosecurity cargo inspection facilities; Christchurch Airport also takes scheduled international cargo, but the post-entry quarantine facilities are in the Auckland region, so a Christchurch arrival carries a domestic movement to Auckland under biosecurity custody. MPI inspection, transitional facility and quarantine testing charges are payable by the importer on top of duty and GST, so a landed-cost comparison that stops at freight will understate the order.
New Zealand Import Questions, Answered
Do I need an import permit to import plants from Indonesia to New Zealand?↓
How long is post-entry quarantine for imported plants?↓
Which species can be imported into New Zealand?↓
Is a phytosanitary certificate required for every consignment?↓
What duty and GST apply to live plants entering New Zealand?↓
Do orchids and succulents need CITES documents?↓
Which ports can a plant consignment enter through?↓
How long does shipping take, and is quarantine included?↓
Ready to Import into New Zealand?
Review our wholesale export catalog of Indonesian tropical houseplants and rare aroids. We check every line against MPI's Plants Biosecurity Index before an invoice is issued, and we quote the CITES position per line. Minimum wholesale consignment is 20 plants.