Alerts

In early 2022, Phase 4 and Phase 5 of the khapra beetle urgent actions are expected to commence. Phase 4 will introduce revised phytosanitary certification requirements for other-risk plant products exported from all countries. Phase 5 will introduce phytosanitary certification requirements for seeds for sowing exported from all countries and arriving via all arrival modes.

Summary of the new requirements:

Failure to comply with the above requirements may result in the export of the goods and/or the container on-arrival in Australia. We will consider transitional arrangements to accommodate consignments in-transit closer to the implementation.

If the products will be packed into an FCL/FCX sea container in a khapra beetle target risk country and will be unpacked in a regional grain growing area of Australia, the sea container itself will need to be treated. See further details on the sea container webpage.

Extension of Phase 6A measures
From 12 July 2021, mandatory offshore treatment requirements were introduced for FCL/FCX containers packed with all types of goods in a khapra beetle target risk country and destined to be unpacked in a rural grain growing area of Australia. To further minimise the risk of the introduction and spread of khapra beetle to high-risk rural areas, we will be extending this requirement to include containers destined for unpack in rural nut growing areas of Australia. This will come into effect for the above FCL/FCX containers exported on or from 15 December 2021. This expansion to the Phase 6A measures is anticipated to have minimal impact to industry.

The additional postcodes to be included for rural nut growing areas of Australia are: 4569, 4517, 4518, 4858 and 4560. For split postcodes, measures will apply to the rural areas of the postcode.

Note: Upon implementation, our sea container measures webpage, BICON case: Non-commodity cargo clearance, our postcode classification search tool and rural grain growing postcodes listing document will be updated to include the additional rural nut growing postcodes.

Who does this notice affect:
Importers of other-risk plant products, seeds for sowing 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.

Background:
These changes are considered necessary because:

• Khapra beetle is a significant threat to Australian plant industries, including the grain export industry. Khapra beetle destroys grain quality making it unfit for human or animal consumption.
• Other-risk plant products and seeds for sowing have been identified as hosts of khapra beetle and as such, a pathway for khapra beetle to enter Australia.
• If khapra beetle enters Australia it would have significant economic consequences. An outbreak could cost Australia $15.5 billion over 20 years through revenue losses arising from damaged grain in storage and exports.

Australia currently has biosecurity requirements in place for a range of products that could be infested with khapra beetle. However, we believe that the biosecurity requirements need to be expanded and strengthened to prevent a khapra beetle incursion.

Further information:
For further information, see:

• Sea container measures to protect against khapra beetle (Trogoderma granarium) webpage
• Urgent actions to protect against khapra beetle (Trogoderma granarium) webpage
• Khapra beetle bulletin
• BICON case: Khapra beetle sea container measures
• BICON case: Non-Commodity Cargo Clearance

For questions and information regarding sea container measures, please phone 1800 900 090 or email spp@awe.gov.au (please title the subject line of the email with ‘khapra urgent actions’).

For questions and information regarding Phase 4 and 5 measures, please phone 1800 900 090 or email imports@awe.gov.au (please title the subject line of the email with ‘Plant Tier 2 – khapra urgent actions’).

For questions and information related directly to offshore khapra beetle treatments, please email offshoretreatments@awe.gov.au.