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Alerts

Plant based stockfeed, petfood, fertiliser, baits & bioremediation BICON permit assessment timeframe

Effective from 4 June 2019

Who does this alert affect:
Industry stakeholders including importers, approved arrangements, freight forwarders and brokers that deal with imported plant based stock feed, pet food, fertiliser, baits and bioremediation products.

What has changed:
This Industry Advice Notice updates the previous IAN 61-2019 – Plant Based stock feed BICON permit assessment timeframes.

The recent drought in Queensland and New South Wales has resulted in a significant increase in the number of permit applications for plant-based stock feed. Additional resources have been brought on to assist in the assessments of plant-based stockfeed permit applications, and resources have also been diverted from other commodity assessments to assist. As a result, the assessment time frames for permit assessments for plant-based stockfeed, pet food, fertiliser and bioremediation products has increased.

The number of permits under assessment and approximate minimum assessment times are:

  • Over 200 permits under assessment

  • Over 60 audits underway

  • Minimum 6 weeks for non-standard permit assessments

To help avoid unnecessary delays, we suggest that permit applicants do the following:

  • When submitting a new application – ensure that all relevant information requested is provided, including having your manufacturer complete the production questionnaire.

  • If you have already submitted an application and you have not provided a production questionnaire, please have the production questionnaire completed by your manufacturer and sent through BICON or imports@agriculture.gov.au.

  • Where possible, we also encourage you to submit permit applications early. The department can take a flexible approach to the permit commencement date by up to three months. This means that if a new permit is granted before your existing permit expires, we will make the start date of the new permit align with the expiry date of the existing permit.

  • Please note that, all information supplied in support of the permit application must meet the department’s Minimum documentary and import declaration requirements policy. Often delays occur because documents provided do not meet these requirements.

Further information:
Enquiries regarding plant based stock feed can be directed by email to imports@agriculture.gov.au or call 1800 900 090 (prompt 1, prompt 1).

This Alert applies to the following Cases: