China has ordered an embargo of lamb mutton and beef meat shipments from New Zealand after Chinese officials discovered problems with the accompanying paperwork on the food items.

It was not revealed how much was the cost of the items currently stuck in containers in ports across China, but the New Zealand Herald reported it was "substantial."

Chinese customs authorities banned the shipments because documentation came from the Ministry of Primary Industries, not from the old Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry (MAF). Earlier, New Zealand regulating authorities changed the name of MAF to Ministry for Primary Industries, along with two other merged agencies.

Nathan Guy, Primary Industries Minister, said New Zealand officials had worked over the weekend to provide additional technical information to the Chinese authorities.

"This information will be given to AQSIQ, the Chinese organization responsible for border clearances. This will enable them to pass it on to port authorities, a process which may take some days," he said in a statement on Monday.

"From time to time these kind of technical delays will occur. This is a temporary issue, but we're confident it can be resolved," Mr Guy said, although no other countries had problems with New Zealand's new documentation.

China is New Zealand's largest buyer of sheepmeat. According to data from Beef + Lamb, in 2011-12, China imported a total of 61,000 tonnes of New Zealand sheepmeat, valued at $276.8 million.

New Zealand's Meat Industry Association remaibs confident the confusion would be resolved at least within the week.

"If it was fixed today then . . . it's not the end of the world but, if it drags on for another number of weeks, then we're really going to start racking up the money," Dan Coup, the association's trade and economic manager, told TVNZ.

He noted most of the meat was frozen and could remain in refrigerated containers on a wharf for a year or more.