12 July 2021
Who does this notice affect?
Stakeholders in the import and shipping industries—including vessel masters, freight forwarders, treatment providers, Biosecurity Industry Participants, importers, customs brokers, principal shipping agents, and any other operators in the sea container supply and logistics chain.
What has changed?
As notified in IAN 145-2021, additional measures under Phase 6A of the khapra beetle urgent actions will commence on 12 July 2021. These additional measures will introduce mandatory offshore treatment requirements for all FCL/FCX sea containers packed with all types of goods in a target risk country and unpacked in a rural grain growing area of Australia.
As notified in IAN 118-2021, we have updated the approved arrangement class 19.1 NCCC requirements to enable accredited persons to undertake assessment of containers that are subject to the above mentioned additional measures.
Importer declaration
In some instances, the department may seek an importer declaration to verify the unpack location of the sea container. This declaration may be requested in instances where the goods delivery address indicates a rural grain growing area but nil khapra concerns have been identified by a broker, or where import declarations are amended to a metropolitan or rural non-grain growing area. When an importer declaration is requested by the department, ensure you use the Importer declaration template.
Treatment non-compliances
Since the introduction of Phase 6A (1) measures, the vast majority of container treatments have been conducted as methyl bromide fumigations. Ineffective/non-compliant treatments have been attributed to two key areas:
- The target of treatment - often, the target of treatment has been identified on treatment documentation as the “commodity”, or “commodity and packing”, as opposed to the required target, being the container.
- The treatment rate – containers have been regularly treated at an incorrect rate; commonly 48g/m3 for 24 hours. Target risk containers must be treated at 80g/m3 for 48 hours at 21oC or equivalent. Further, these treatments must be conducted under sheet, with both doors fully open, and with an additional monitoring line placed under the container.
In IAN 95-2021, we notified the implementation of a temporary arrangement (i.e. onshore risk mitigation measures, where appropriate until 9 July 2021), to facilitate the import of consignments (containerised goods) that are accompanied by a treatment certificate (with approved khapra treatments) for the sea container but did not meet all the khapra treatment requirements. This temporary arrangement will now be extended for consignments for which container treatment was completed on or before 31 July 2021.
Consignments for which container treatment was completed on or after 1 August 2021 and deemed to be non-compliant/ineffective by the department, will not be eligible for onshore risk mitigation measures and will be directed for export, unless the sea container meets the in-transit policy criteria.
To minimise the risk of khapra beetle entering Australia, and to avoid the risk of non-compliant consignments being directed for export, importers are strongly encouraged to ensure imported consignments subject to the khapra measures comply with the department’s treatment methodologies.
Further information
For further information, see:
- BICON case: Khapra beetle sea container measures
- BICON case: Non-commodity cargo clearance
- Sea container measures to protect against khapra beetle (Trogoderma granarium)
- Urgent actions to protect against khapra beetle (Trogoderma granarium)
- Khapra beetle bulletin
For:
- Questions and information related directly to offshore khapra beetle treatments, please email offshoretreatments@aff.gov.au.
- All other enquiries regarding these measures, please phone 1800 900 090 or email imports@aff.gov.au (please title the subject line of the email with ‘Plant Tier 2 – khapra urgent actions’).