The Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade is reassuring New Zealand exporters that their products continue to be cleared into China, as fears simmer that Kiwi companies are on a trade blacklist following access problems for fresh salmon shipments.

The country's biggest seafood company and exporter Sanford says administrative issues with its salmon exports to China have caused delays getting several shipments cleared through Chinese ports since the end of last month.

While Sanford has not suggested the holdups are a result of a deteriorating relationship between New Zealand and its free trade agreement partner following the Government decision to exclude Chinese company Huawei from Spark's 5G network tender process, news of this issue has fanned concerns that our economic cornerstone food export sectors could be next to feel China's displeasure.

Scheduled diplomatic and tourism promotional events between the two countries have been put on hold by China this month.


But the ministry (MFAT) has hosed down concerns.

"In a trade relationship of this scale, there will be cases where products face issues at the border, for a range of reasons including questions of regulatory compliance or revised border inspection processes," a spokesperson said.

"The overall picture is one of a significant trade relationships working effectively, in both directions."

MFAT was mindful that all functions within China's border clearance agencies were being restructure under one single agency.

"Customs officials who this time last year worked for different agencies are now performing new functions, using new systems and following newly-learned practices.

"This may affect timeliness in some instances, but has a corresponding benefit of seeing more consistency in the application of regulations across all ports of entry."