25 November 2024
Who does this notice affect?
Importers and brokers of highly processed plant products not for human consumption.
Background
The department has maintained the BICON case titled: ‘Highly processed soybean and/or corn products not for human consumption’. The case has restricted imports to only soybean and corn that have undergone extensive manufacturing to form highly processed goods. Soy cat litter is an example of goods imported under this case.
The case included import scenario questions for package weight. Import conditions mandated onshore inspection to confirm goods are free of biosecurity risk and that plant material is not capable of propagation.
Following industry feedback, we have completed a risk assessment to broaden the import conditions to other highly processed plant ingredients and removed the onshore inspection requirement for certain highly processed plant products.
What has changed?
The following changes will take effect Wednesday 27 November 2024.
Updates to import conditions in BICON
- The case title will be renamed to ’Highly processed plant products not for human consumption’ to broaden the import conditions to include highly processed plant products made from peas (Pisum spp.), beans (Phaseolus spp.) and cassava (Manihot spp.).
- The import question related to package weight (equal to or less than 5 kg) will be removed with a question added on ‘end-use’. This will redirect BICON users to alternative cases where the end-use is other than listed e.g. for fertiliser, petfood or stockfeed end uses.
- New import conditions will be added to enable release without inspection for certain highly processed plant products. These are products where offshore manufacturing processes involve heating and extrusion, pressing or pelletising to form a final product (e.g. cat litter). The conditions will require a declaration attesting to this level of processing. This is an assessable requirement and goods that meet the import conditions will not require inspection on arrival.
The department assesses that the majority of goods imported under this case would meet the import conditions for release without inspection, providing cost and resource savings for the department and industry.
Processed plant products that have not been manufactured using heat and extrusion, pressing or pellstised will continue to require inspection onshore as per previous import conditions.
Updates to Community Protection question
To support the changes, brokers will be asked a new Community Protection question at lodgement: ‘Have the goods been processed by heating and extrusion, pressing or pelletising?’.
The question is only associated with tariffs commonly used for goods reported and managed as highly processed plant products not for human consumption. Either a Y or N response to the question will refer the goods for standard documentary assessment by the department.
This allows the department to monitor and report on import volumes assessed and released without inspection compared to volumes requiring inspection. The data may support future reform to the pathway.
Further information
Please check BICON and the import conditions for ’Highly processed plant products not for human consumption’.
For further information, please contact the department at imports@aff.gov.au and use the subject ‘Plant Tier 2 – Highly processed soybean and/or corn products not for human consumption’.