The Ministry of Agriculture hopes exports of New Zealand cattle semen and embryos to the European Union will resume before the end of this year.
The trade was formerly worth $NZ6 million a year. It was stopped early last year after the EU raised concerns about facilities and verification practices.
The ban hit two livestock breeding and genetics companies, LIC and Ambreed, whhich had been increasing their exports to Ireland and Britain in particular, to meet a growing demand for New Zealand cattle genetics.
MAF Biosecurity group manager for animal imports and exports Matthew Stone says it's been a big task over the past 18 months to update the requirements for live animal, and germ-plasm or semen and embryo shipments to EU markets.
But he says the two companies are close to getting back on the approved list.
To meet EU demands, LIC and Ambreed have set up new semen collection facilities, at Awahuri in Manawatu and at Cambridge in Waikato, and are isolating bulls that will be supplying those markets.
