Changes

The department has completed a Weed Risk Assessment for Caladium praetermissum. As a result, Caladium praetermissum has been added as a permitted species for BICON cases ‘Medium risk plants for use as nursery stock’ and ‘Bulbs to be grown in open quarantine for use as nursery stock’.

Who does this notice affect:
Importers who wish to import Caladium praetermissum for an end use of nursery stock (and their customs brokers), and Department of Agriculture, Water and the Environment staff.

Background:
The Weed Risk Assessment and Disease Risk Assessment systems are science-based quarantine risk analysis tools for determining the weed potential of a species and the disease risks of a genus. All plants proposed for importation into Australian territory and not currently permitted on BICON are assessed for their potential to introduce disease or become weed species in Australia. Further information on the assessment process is available on the department’s website.

Import permits:
Current import permits will not be updated to reflect this change, any permit holders intending to import these species will have to apply for a variation to include these additional species.

Further information:
Please contact Plant Import Operations on 1800 900 090 or by email at imports@agriculture.gov.au