Alerts

Khapra beetle measures: provisional alternative treatment options for high-risk plant products

Effective from 28 July 2021

The purpose of this notification is to advise stakeholders of provisional alternative treatment options available for high-risk plant products under Phase 3 of the khapra beetle urgent actions.

Who does this alert affect:
Importers of high-risk plant products and other stakeholders in the import and shipping industries—including vessel masters, freight forwarders, treatment providers, Biosecurity Industry Participants, importers, customs brokers, principal shipping agents, and any other operators in the sea container supply and logistics chain.

What’s the change:
Phase 3 of the urgent actions will commence in September 2021. It will introduce mandatory offshore treatment using an approved option for high-risk plant products exported from a khapra beetle target risk country via all commercial air and sea pathways.

Approved treatment options are heat treatment and methyl bromide fumigation. We recognise these options are not feasible for some products. As such, we have considered alternative treatment options, including modified atmosphere treatments.

We have published a document on our website detailing alternative treatment options available for high-risk plant products. These options are provisional measures only. Provisional measures are subject to change as further data and information becomes available.

We are engaging with peak industry bodies on the proposed alternative treatment options. Importers and treatment providers interested in using modified atmosphere treatments are encouraged to register their interest via email: offshoretreatments@agriculture.gov.au.

Import conditions:
BICON import conditions for impacted goods will be amended to incorporate the alternative treatment options closer to implementation date.

Further information:
For further information, see:

For:

Questions and information related directly to offshore khapra beetle treatments, please email offshoretreatments@agriculture.gov.au.
All other enquiries regarding these measures, please phone 1800 900 090 or email imports@agriculture.gov.au (please title the subject line of the email with ‘Plant Tier 2 – khapra urgent actions’).

This Alert applies to the following Cases: