Changes

The purpose of this notification is to advise that effective immediately, the import conditions have been updated to remove the requirement for mandatory seed purity testing of Cucurbitaceous seeds imported for an end use of sowing.

Consignments may still be subject to purity testing if contaminants are detected during on-arrival inspection.

Additionally, the cucurbit seeds for sowing BICON cases have been revised to streamline the number of import pathways and where possible, merge offshore and onshore requirements for testing and/or treatment into a single pathway. Please be advised that no other changes have been made to the import requirements themselves in the restructure of these cases.

Who does this notice affect:
Importers (and their customs brokers) of cucurbitaceous vegetable seed for sowing and departmental staff.

Background:
The department has determined that the risk of contamination in cucurbit seeds is sufficiently mitigated through pre-export seed extraction processes and on-arrival inspection.

Further information:
For enquiries regarding these changes, please phone 1800 900 090 or email Plant Import Operations at imports@agriculture.gov.au (include ‘Plant T2’ in the subject line).