export licence<\/a> had been 10 working days but since the start of this year it’s been cut on average to 6.4 working days.<\/p>\nAssociate Health Minister David Seymour said New Zealand companies were becoming more reliable trading partners overseas as a result.<\/p>\n
Exporting of the cannabis flower has increased significantly with just 49 kilograms moved offshore in 2021, compared to 2310 kilograms last year.<\/p>\n
Applications for an export licence and average processing times:<\/p>\n
2022\/2023: 26 applications; 22.5 working days
\n2023\/2024: 48 applications; 17.8 working days
\n2024\/2025: 65 applications; 10.0 working days<\/p>\n
![\"Southern](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/4LQ1UM9_20220617_110327_jpg.jpeg\")
<\/p>\n
\nFile photo. Crop grown for medicinal cannabis.
\nPhoto: RNZ \/ Tess Brunton\n<\/p>\n
A licence is required for every shipment of medicinal cannabis exported from New Zealand.<\/p>\n
“The government is also looking at giving exporters more permanent licences to reduce red tape and bureaucracy,” Seymour said.<\/p>\n
“Vendors are required to hold a medicinal cannabis licence, and must also apply to Medsafe for a controlled drug export licence for each shipment. Officials have said there may be an option to consider a broader or enduring export licence across multiple consignments.”<\/p>\n
Seymour said Medsafe was also making it easier for growers of low-THC hemp to operate in New Zealand.<\/p>\n
“Medicinal cannabis cultivators will soon be able to grow low THC plants without a licence, allowing more of the plant to be used to make medicinal cannabis products,” he said.<\/p>\n
Sign up for Ng\u0101 Pitopito K\u014drero<\/a>, a daily newsletter curated by our editors and delivered straight to your inbox every weekday.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Associate Health Minister David Seymour. Photo: RNZ \/ Mark Papalii Medicinal cannabis exporters are able to move New…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":302206,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[48,47,111,43,139,69,49,46,44,45],"class_list":["post-378122","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-zealand","tag-audio","tag-current-affairs","tag-new-zealand","tag-news","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-podcasts","tag-public-radio","tag-radio-new-zealand","tag-rnz"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/378122","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=378122"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/378122\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/302206"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=378122"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=378122"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=378122"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
![\"Bridge\"\/](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/4JTFF04_David_Seymour_10_02_26_1_jpg.jpeg\")
<\/p>\n