DAFF - IAN 2026-21 : Plant Exports – Updates to instructional material for supporting documents

18 May 2026

Purpose

This Industry Advice Notice (IAN) is to advise plant exporters, registered establishment occupiers and authorised officers (AOs) of updates to instructional material for supporting documents for plant exports.

Summary of changes and key points

The Export process instruction: Supporting documents for plant exports has been updated on the Plant Export Operations Manual. The updates include:

• Addition of a requirement for supporting documents to be directly linkable to the relevant export consignment. This will strengthen expectations to improve traceability across the export certification process.
• Clarification on when consignment-specific linking is required, and when alternative identifiers may be used.
• Inclusion of document-specific requirements for linking the following documents
  • fumigation certificates 
  • laboratory analysis certificates
  • pest free status declarations 
  • crop inspection certificates
  • exporter and manufacturer declarations.
• Clarification of requirements for completing the fumigation and laboratory analysis certificate and assessing their validation outcomes.

Background 

Updates were undertaken in response to industry feedback, to improve clarity and support more effective implementation by industry.

The instructional material for supporting documents for plant exports has been updated to clarify requirements and validation process for users.

Industry stakeholder responsibilities

You must:

• read and familiarise yourself with the updated instructional material 
• comply with the clarified and updated requirements from the date of publication.

Contact information

If you have any questions regarding this IAN, please email Business Systems Program

Jemma Martin
Assistant Secretary
Plant Export Branch