Date issued: 15 November 2006
On the 7 August 2000, the PHYTO database was made available to the public through the AQIS web page and Industry Advice Notice 2000/37 published advising of the availability of the database and how to use.
The PHYTO database is a guide to importing country conditions for plant products known to AQIS at the time.
As importing country conditions become known to AQIS the database is updated accordingly, and recently changes were made to the database where individual restrictions with the same requirements have been consolidated into a generic restriction.
Eg:
- Fruit – All
- Vegetables – All
- Fruit – Other
- Vegetables – Other
- All
These changes have been undertaken for 2 reasons:
- To make information contained in the database easier to locate; and
- To improve efficiency by reducing the number of restrictions within the database.
Clients have reported difficulty in locating all the conditions applying to a particular commodity. Investigations showed that there has been some confusion over the classification of commodities as either a fruit or vegetable. To help clients determine if a commodity is either a fruit or vegetable, the following list has been added to all the generic fresh vegetable restrictions:
The following are classed as fruits (as they develop from a flower) and any specifically listed conditions or generic restriction conditions apply:
- Capsicum
- Pumpkin
- Squash
- Avocado
- Tomato
- Melons
- Chillies
- Cucumber
- Eggplant
- Olive
- Zucchini
Jeanine Crowther
Manager, Horticulture Export Program
Contact Officer: Phyto Administrator
Email: Phyto Admin