Changes

Effective immediately, the open quarantine requirements associated with post-entry quarantine (PEQ) disease screening for imported high-risk nursery stock has been removed.

This change impacts the import conditions for the following genera imported as nursery stock:

• Juglans spp.
• Olea spp.
• Passiflora spp.
• Persea spp. (other than tissue culture only)
• Ribes spp.
• Vitis spp. (other than tissue culture only)

The overall minimum quarantine period for disease screening and testing at the Commonwealth PEQ facility at Mickleham, Victoria remains unchanged (see Table 1). However, plants will now be maintained within a closed PEQ environment throughout the PEQ period.

Table 1. Minimum quarantine periods for high-risk nursery stock which previously required disease screening within an open quarantine environment (current as of September 2022). Disease screening of these plants will now be performed within closed PEQ only. The below minimum periods apply to both tissue culture and other than tissue culture.

Background:

• The department has reviewed open quarantine requirements for high-risk nursery stock to ensure that our conditions remain current and best able to protect Australian agriculture from new and emerging plant pests and diseases.
• The review concluded that disease screening can be adequately and effectively achieved by maintaining plants within a closed quarantine (greenhouse) environment. Accordingly, import conditions have been revised to remove specific requirements to transfer high-risk nursery stock plants for screening to an open quarantine facility during the minimum quarantine period.

Import permits:
Import permits will be varied to reflect the changes, at no cost to permit holders. The department will contact affected permit holders regarding these variations

Who does this notice affect:
Importers of Juglans spp., Olea spp., Passiflora spp., Persea spp., Ribes spp., and Vitis spp. as nursery stock, brokers, and department staff.

Further information:
Please contact Plant Import Operations on 1800 900 090 or by email imports@agriculture.gov.au (please title the subject line of the email with ‘Plant T2 – Open quarantine changes for nursery stock).