1 April 2025
Who does this notice affect?
Stakeholders associated with offshore treatment and importing Country Action List (CAL) goods (break bulk) into Australia that manage Sea Container Hygiene System (SCHS) cargo. This includes customs brokers, importers, shipping lines.
What has changed?
The Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry has reviewed the Sea Container Hygiene System (SCHS) Assessment and Management Policy and will be making some changes to the onshore management of actionable snails on the SCHS pathway.
There are no changes required to processes for recognised SCHS facilities. The change only relates to how the department manages onshore intervention under the policy. SCHS facilities may experience increased intervention on SCHS treated containers.
As snail management is a key requirement of the SCHS measures any actionable snail detections on this pathway indicate potential failures in the system and the risk of actionable snails and other biosecurity risks, may not be adequately managed. All actionable snail detections will now be managed in the same category as giant African snails. This includes reactive intervention, assurance periods and quarterly intervention rates.
The updated policy will be published and implemented on inspections undertaken from 1 April 2025. The policy can be accessed on the departments webpage.
We expect that the policy changes will further assist in improving snail management for SCHS facilities and improve biosecurity outcomes for Australia when combined with the benefits of offshore management of biosecurity risk.
Further information
- General information on SCHS can be found on the departments webpage: agriculture.gov.au
- For further information about SCHS requirements please contact the department via email: schscargopolicy@aff.gov.au