Date of Issue: 21 March 2017
Date of Effect: 1 July 2017
Attention:
Industry - Exporters of egg and egg products, Export registered egg establishments
Department of Agriculture and Water Resources - Central and regional offices
State Regulatory Authorities (QLD & NSW)
Purpose
To advise licensed egg exporters of changes to the current export certification. Exporters will be required to request electronic certification through the Electronic Certification system (EXDOC).
Implementation of electronic certification for egg exports
From 1 July 2017, the department will be implementing mandatory electronic certification for the export of egg and egg products. To assist you in moving from manual certification system, information is included that may help you choose the best options available to obtain export documentation electronically.
Background
Currently the department allows the use of both manual and electronic certification for the export of egg and egg products. The department will be removing the manual certification option for more efficiency in export certification and the change will also be in line with other commodities that mandate electronic certification, which includes meat, dairy and fish.
EXDOC supports the preparation of export documentation for products which are prescribed under the Export Control Act 1982 and subordinate legislation and to meet importing country requirements.
The system is used to request export documentation such as permits and government certificates. EXDOC verifies that products are eligible for export by linking information from the Export Register database (ER), such as registered operations of the export registered establishments and overseas listing approvals.
What does this mean for your business?
Electronic certification will provide exporters with significant financial benefits. The cost of requesting export documents electronically will be cheaper. It will be a $27 levy with a $6 fee ($33 in total) for each document compared to $100 for each document when manually requested. Currently there is a remission available for electronically requested export documents. The Fees and charging guideline 2015-16 provides further details of the cost of each type of export documentation requested.
If you are not an EXDOC user already, you will need to register with EXDOC. There are three types of registration that you may register as:
- an exporter only
- an EDI User only (you require EXDOC interface software)
- both an exporter and EDI user (you require EXDOC interface software)
The exporter registration is for those clients that wish to have their name included as the exporter of the goods on export documentation. You do not require EXDOC interface software to obtain export documentation. You can authorise an agent that has the EXDOC interface software to request export documentation on your behalf.
An EDI user is the party requesting the export documentation electronically. An EDI user will need to have an accredited third party software package installed to interface with EXDOC in order to obtain export documentation.
If you intend to register with EXDOC as an EDI user, please be aware that the process can take several weeks, as it will require you to undergo training to gain an awareness of the EXDOC system as well as user testing. We recommend you commence the process well in advance, before 1 July.
For further information about EXDOC system, please visit the department’s EXDOC webpage. Further information on how to register as an EXDOC user is also available on the webpage.
Information about the requirements for egg exporters is available on the department’s website to help you understand export documentation.
Contingency arrangements
In the event of an EXDOC outage, or, if there is no EXDOC template available for the destination then manual documentation may be used in accordance with current arrangements. The current arrangements for export documentation required by an importing country is available through the Manual of Importing Country Requirements (MICoR).
Further information
Contact Dairy Eggs Fish if you have any queries.
The information provided in this advice is current at the time of writing and is intended for use as guidance only and should not be taken as definitive or exhaustive. The Commonwealth endeavours to keep information current and accurate, however, it may be subject to change without notice. Exporters are encouraged to verify these details with their importers prior to undertaking production/exports. The Commonwealth will not accept liability for any loss resulting from reliance on information contained in this notice.