Busting Congestion for Plant Exports

The packhouse grower supplier model (the model) is a voluntary, alternative assurance model and auditing program for accredited property packhouses and farms.

This is a great opportunity to help streamline Australia’s export practices. Accredited property packhouses approved on the model can expect fewer on-farm audits while maintaining confidence that they meet export regulatory and trading partners’ requirements.

The model provides a flexible approach for industry participants to demonstrate grower compliance with trading partner and export regulatory requirements.

Expanding the model to other horticulture industries

Accreditation under the model currently applies to the export of citrus to protocol markets. However, the department is looking to expand the model to other suitable horticulture industries that have appropriate commercial grower supplier management systems in place.

If you’re a packhouse operator interested in the model and how it might apply to your business, please contact the Plant Export Reform Program at congestionbustingplant@aff.gov.au

Recognising existing commercial systems

The department recognises the commercial arrangements that exist between packhouses and their associated grower suppliers.

Accredited property packhouses approved under the model will be given additional responsibilities to ensure that requirements for the accredited property farm(s) they manage are being met.

A nominated packhouse representative(s) will be responsible for verifying that farms are compliant with the accredited property farm, crop monitor requirements and necessary importing country requirements.

The packhouse representative(s) must conduct verification of farm activities through on-site farm inspections in addition to the verification of crop monitoring records and spray diaries throughout the entire growing season.

A more efficient audit process for industry

Packhouses approved to operate under the model, will be subject to an in-season departmental audit to ensure packhouse and farm obligations are being met. Growers will not be directly audited. However, compliance with obligations by the farm will be assessed through the packhouse audit.

Some potential benefits include:

• packhouses could save time by not having to coordinate grower audits
• packhouses could use their existing grower management processes to meet the department’s requirements
• growers could save on the cost of audits and spend less time with auditors.

For more information, visit the Plant Export Operations Manual.

Supporting material

The following policy documents came into effect on 1 November 2023 and can be found on the Plant Export Operations Manual. They include:

• Guideline: Management of horticulture export accredited properties operating under the packhouse grower supplier model
• Reference: Performance standards for the packhouse grower supplier model
• Reference: Application for the packhouse grower supplier model
• Reference: Packhouse management of growers template

The project will develop and introduce a new Grain Trade Australia (GTA) Grain Storage Assets and Management Standard that meets export requirements. The Standard will help to maintain Australia’s reputation as a reliable supplier of safe and high-quality grain.
Through the project we will:

• work with GTA and industry to co-design an industry standard which recognises existing commercial quality systems and new technology
• recognise the new standard to reduce departmental audit and inspection activities.

Proposed benefits

Industry assured grain storages with improved processes and procedures for grain management, as outlined in the Standard, will provide benefits for industry and the department, including:

• having a standard that demonstrates assurance to the department
• reduction in departmental audits and inspections for those who adopt and are compliant with the standard
• strengthen the confidence of overseas and domestic consumers in the quality of Australian grain
• improved level of assurance and confidence for the department in Export Registered Establishments (EREs) and their storage, management, and quality systems in the export grain supply chain
• providing a tool for demonstrating greater assurance to the department on industry compliance, which can lead to a reduction in the department’s level of regulatory intervention
• increased confidence for the financial services industry leading to improved access to finance and insurance
• improved interface with the logistics supply chain and reduced remediation cost for out of specification grain
• decreased exposure to inventory loss and contractual risk
• providing [evidentiary] records that will support quality control and niche marketing opportunities
• demonstrated compliance with WH&S and other regulatory requirements.

An industry-led Standard

GTA has a comprehensive strategy to make the Australian grain industry more competitive through to 2030. A key part is to develop a Grain Storage Assets and Management Standard (the Standard) for Australian grain industry participants. The Standard recognises that specifications for storage facilities are needed by both the domestic and export grain market. This will meet expectations in terms of grain quality, food safety and phytosanitary reputation.

Role of the department

The department regulates grain exported from Australia. Our role is to ensure that Australian grain exports are:

• fit for purpose
• accurately described
• free of live stored grain insects
• free of any other pests or contaminants of quarantine concern to importing countries. 

We have released a Plant Export Operations Strategic Plan for 2030. Both GTA’s and our strategies aim to modernise and increase efficiencies in the grain industry supply chain. We can achieve that by working together.

How the Standard will work

Both GTA and the department are pursuing a shared goal to deliver efficiencies to Australian grain industry participants through recognition of the Standard to meet our regulatory requirements. We both believe this will deliver efficiencies to Australian grain industry participants.
The Standard will set out how industry will meet our regulatory goals. We must be able to assess the Standard against the Commonwealth’s legislative export requirements for entities involved in the grain export supply chain. This will provide increased clarity, simplicity, and confidence in the export grain supply chain, from both a commercial and a regulatory perspective.
While the Standard will be voluntary, through defining the requirements for compliance via different levels of operation, the Standard will also be able to be adopted by the domestic industry. In those instances, the requirements of the department will not be applicable.

Using new technology for better outcomes

As part of other government initiatives, the project to develop the Standard has highlighted opportunities for industry to adopt new technology to sample and test grain for quality and phytosanitary purposes. This will help make assessment more accurate, improve confidence in the inspection process and could also reduce costs to industry and the department. This Standard will include elements of technology adoption that may be realised during the project timeline by us and industry, or alternatively after the project.
Longer term the Standard will be the basis for an alternative assurance arrangement, in which we recognise the GTA Standard and the proposed auditing and assurance framework in meeting the regulatory requirements. We will consider intervening less as the level of assurance increases. Industry will show higher levels of assurance through:

• meeting the standards
• using nationally recognized technology
• the compliance history of establishments
• industry quality management systems.

This project delivered efficiencies in the horticulture industry by recognising existing food safety and quality assurance schemes and their alignment with plant export regulatory requirements.

Benefits

We reduced the time and cost of departmental export audits without compromising the required level of assurance. This change is beneficial to accredited growers and packers through recognition of current food safety and quality assurance schemes at use.
By streamlining horticulture export audit processes, growers and packers will benefit from:

• reduced costs
• time saved
• less pressure during peak periods.

Previous audit processes

Horticulture businesses underwent audits with similar elements from different organisations. These included food safety certifying bodies and various levels of government. These audits often covered the same activities in relation to:

• cleanliness
• waste management
• pest management
• chemical use and storage
• product labelling
• traceability.

Streamlining our audits

We identified areas of overlap in the packhouse between food safety and quality assurance schemes and plant export regulatory requirements. We streamlined horticulture export audits by removing this overlap while maintaining strong assurance systems.

The areas where recognition applies include:

• cleanliness
• waste management
• pest management

We now recognise current food safety and quality certification to a Global Food Safety Initiative (GFSI) approved scheme. These GFSI schemes include:

• GLOBALG.A.P.
• Freshcare
• British Retail Consortium (BRC) Global Standard for Food Safety
• Safe Quality Food (SQF)

Managers of horticulture registered establishments and/or accredited property packhouses can now provide a food safety certificate or a food safety certificate extension notification during plant export audits. The certificate must be issued by a third-party food safety audit certification body, accredited by JAS-ANZ, and not expired at the time of the export audit.

More efficient audit process

The horticulture export audit process will now be more efficient where evidence of food safety certification is provided. This will provide time-saving benefits to the auditee and auditor.

Where adequate evidence of certification is not provided, or there is visual evidence of non-conformance with export regulatory requirements, auditors may elect to conduct a full audit.

Updated performance standards

These documents have been updated as part of the recognition of food safety certification:

• Guideline: Audit of plant export registered establishments
• Guideline: Audit of horticulture export accredited properties
• Reference: Performance standards for plant export registered establishments
• Reference: Performance standards for packhouses

The instructional material is in the Plant Export Operations Manual