Only "Taiwan Suitable" apples can be exported to the Asian island and must be able to be traced using a unique identification number, have been sprayed to meet specific plant pest spray regimes, have been packed by an MPI-approved packhouse, and been segregated throughout the packing process to ensure traceability.
It is the grower's and packhouse's responsibility to meet the requirements for a "Taiwan Suitable" apple.
Pipfruit New Zealand CEO Alan Pollard said the New Zealand pipfruit industry has a responsibility to uphold the integrity of their business by obeying the number of strict rules they have in place for exporting fruit.
He said he was unable to comment directly on the case, but added there was no indication to suggest that other companies were involved in similar actions to Matipou Orchard Ltd.
The charges stemmed from a lengthy investigation where the former Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries (now MPI) withdrew its approval for the company to inspect and pass apples from its Ormond Rd, Twyford, packhouse as fit for export to Taiwan.
Agriculture and Fisheries officers and police executed a search warrant on the company in March 2013, and the charges were subsequently laid.
The importance of the traceability of exported fruit was witnessed in 2007, when for six weeks Taiwan stopped importing apples from New Zealand, after a single codling moth larvae was discovered in a shipment of 1029 boxes of Hawke's Bay apples.
The originating packhouse was identified but not revealed publicly, and later in the year Pipfruit NZ's Mike Butcher warned growers of the need for all in the industry to take greater care to protect what was then a market worth up to $40m annually.
New Zealand horticultural exports are vital to the national economy and over the past 20 years have grown from $200m to $2.23b.
Including domestic sales the industry is worth $4b and is the country's sixth largest export industry.
Apple exports amount to about $300m per annum in export earnings, while annual exports to Taiwan, considered an important export market for New Zealand apple growers and exporters, currently amount to about $30m.