The Department of Agriculture and Water Resources held a "cut flower information session" on 5 April 2019 with wide industry representation.
The communique of the event summarising the presentations by Dr Vanessa Findlay (Principal of Brickfielder GE - presenting on behalf of the cut flower importing industry) and Ms Alana Pittard (Victoria Farmers Federation - presenting on behalf of plant-based agriculture industries) is now available on the department's website.
Also now available is the department's responses to the questions and comments raised - refer HERE.
Since the information session, the department has made decisions on a number of matters, in particular, extending the timeframe by which they will be addressing very high non-compliance with the import conditions for cut flowers and foliage.
From 1 September 2019, exporting countries with high trade volumes and that are found to have very high levels of non-compliance using a systems approach will be required to use alternative pre-export pest management options to send cut flowers and foliage to Australia.
Importers may apply to the department for import permits from 1 July 2019 to use the systems approach from these countries. The permits will take effect from 1 September 2019.
If the country makes improvements to its pest management system, the National Plant Protection Organisation of the exporting country may apply to have the systems approach reinstated. Submissions will require a formal evaluation, including a possible audit and be approved by the department.
The department is currently notifying the countries and importers likely to be affected by this change.
I would also like to let you know that they are finalising Part 1 of the pest risk analysis for cut flower and foliage imports and they expect to release the final report by the end of June 2019.
The department will notify stakeholders prior to releasing the final report.
Further information about Australia's import conditions for cut flowers and foliage, including pre-export pest management options and import permits is available on their website.
Andrew Crawford - FTA / APSA |
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