Changes

Who does this notice affect?
Importers and custom brokers of Poaceae seeds for sowing that have undergone purity testing pre-export.

What does this change relate to?
In many cases, seeds for sowing imported to Australia require mandatory purity testing in accordance with International Seed Testing Association (ISTA) methodology, to confirm freedom from exotic weed seeds and contaminants.
In accordance with the ISTA accreditation scheme (Chapter 2, Section 2.5.4.2), companies may be approved to take samples from large seed lots of up to 25,000kg for the purposes of ISTA testing. This approval may only apply to the species listed in Table 1 below. Ordinarily, for companies without approval, a maximum seed lot weight of 10,000kg applies to these species.

What has changed?
Effective immediately, import conditions have been updated to include an additional statement on the ISTA purity analysis certificate, when a maximum seed lot weight of up to 25,000kg applies.
Where applicable, the following declaration must be provided on the Orange International Certificate (OIC) or Seed analysis certificate, issued by the department approved seed purity testing laboratory:
"[Insert company name] is approved by the relevant ISTA Certifying Authority to assemble 25,000kg herbage seed lots."
Importers, customs brokers and issuing laboratories are responsible for ensuring that this statement is included on the purity certificate provided to the department.

What species and BICON cases are impacted?
For companies with ISTA approval, the 25,000kg maximum seed lot weight may apply to the species in the Poaceae grass family listed in Table 1 below.
Accordingly, this new declaration requirement has been added to the conditions of the BICON case outlined below.

Table 1: Poaceae species for which 25,000kg seed lot weight is applicable.

Background:
ISTA delegates the responsibility for the approval of companies to the Designated/Certifying Authority of the individual country (ISTA Rules Chapter 2, Section 2.5.4.2.4). The Certifying Authority is responsible for maintaining a list of companies in their country that are approved to sample 25,000kg seed lots. A list of these companies is not publicly available.
Therefore, the department is reliant on both industry and overseas laboratories (who are producing ISTA certification for imported seeds) to provide assurance that a company has the necessary approval to sample large seed lots for ISTA testing.

Further information:
For further information please contact Plant Import Operations on 1800 900 090 or email imports@aff.gov.au (please title the subject line of the email ‘Plant T2 – seed for sowing’).