Alerts

The purpose of this notification is to advise stakeholders that the Department of Agriculture, Water and the Environment (the department) is taking further actions to manage the risk of the bacterial pathogen Xylella in imported nursery stock.

The changes will result in regulatory measures being applied to additional plant families.

These actions are being carried out under Australia’s emergency measures for Xylella and will commence on 1 June 2021. The emergency measures are in place to safeguard Australia from the entry of Xylella fastidiosa (and all of its sub-species) and X. taiwanensis.
The department will also notify trading partners of this change through a Sanitary and Phytosanitary (SPS) notification.

What will change?

The known host range of Xylella is expanding. Under Australia’s emergency measures for Xylella, changes in host status means that measures are required to reduce the likelihood of this pathogen entering Australia.
Due to new published literature showing that Xylella infects new hosts, the emergency measures will be applied to seven (7) additional plant families.

These families are:

• Araucariaceae
• Argophyllaceae
• Athyriaceae
• Corynocarpaceae
• Dennstaedtiaceae
• Haloragaceae
• Violaceae

This change affects 22 genera within BICON; see Table 1 for a list of affected genera. These additional families will increase the total number of regulated plant families from 98 families to 105 families.
An overview of import conditions that would need to be met for plant propagative material (excluding seeds) are outlined within the department’s website.

Table 1. Genera that will be subject to Xylella measures as they belong to a newly regulated plant family for Xylella.

What types of material are affected?

These changes affect all permitted genera and species within affected plant families, imported as nursery stock. This includes tissue cultures, rooted plants, budwood and cuttings.
These requirements do not apply to imports of true botanical seeds.

What about consignments that are in-transit?

The revised conditions will apply to consignments that are exported to Australia on or after 1 June 2021.

• Consignments that are exported to Australia prior to 1 June 2021 will be permitted entry into Australian territory under existing conditions.
• Commercial documentation (i.e. bill of lading or airway bill) must be provided to the department to verify that the date of export was prior to 1 June 2021. Consignments that are unable to meet this requirement will be subject to the revised conditions.

How will import permits and new permit applications be affected?

The department will contact affected import permit holders to vary existing permits in line with the above changes. As these permit variations will be initiated by the department, there will be no cost to import permit holders.

As we transition to the revised measures, there will be delays to the issuance of new import permits for affected genera. However, we will work with permit applicants to minimise trade impacts as much as practically possible. Permit applicants will be required to provide information on their import plans to assist with this process.

Background

Xylella is Australia's top priority plant pathogen as it has the potential to severely impact our agricultural and horticultural industries and the environment. In addition to having a large host range, Xylella is easily spread by sap-feeding insects and the propagation of infected plants.

Emergency measures for Xylella were implemented in November 2015, and expanded in August 2020, to strengthen Australia’s biosecurity requirements that safeguard us against its entry. The department has commenced a pest risk analysis of Xylella to evaluate these emergency measures and consider ongoing risk management measures to ensure that measures are technically justified.

The department will continue to monitor and assess evidence of new risks posed by Xylella and may amend import conditions again in the future.

Further information

Enquiries can be directed to 1800 900 090 or via email at imports@agriculture.gov.au (please title the subject line of the email with ‘Plant T2 – Xylella emergency measures’).