19 December 2014
This Biosecurity Advice notifies stakeholders that Australia’s Director of Animal and Plant Quarantine has considered the Final import risk analysis report for fresh salacca fruit from Indonesia and agrees to its recommendations.
In doing so, the Director of Animal and Plant Quarantine provides guidance to the department’s permit issuing staff to take account of the measures set out in that final import risk analysis report in considering applications for permits.
In response to a proposal from Indonesia, the Department of Agriculture completed an import risk analysis (IRA) on fresh salacca fruit from Indonesia. The IRA was completed as a standard IRA in accordance with the Import Risk Analysis Handbook 2011.
The IRA process commenced 21 December 2012 (Biosecurity Advice 2012/28). A draft IRA report was released for a 60 day consultation period on 6 February 2014 (Biosecurity Advice 2014/02). On 31 October, the provisional final IRA report was released for a period of 30 days (Biosecurity Advice 2014/12), during which appeals could be made on the basis of a failure by the department to follow proper process, as set out in the IRA Handbook. No appeals were received.
The final IRA report recommends that Indonesia’s existing commercial practices for the production of salacca for export combined with a system of operational procedures, will address the risk of exotic pests or diseases entering Australia on imported fresh salacca fruit. In particular:
- Salacca fruit is to be produced in accordance with Indonesia’s national standard for farm certification of good agricultural practices and standard operating procedures for the production, pest management, harvesting, packing, inspection and certification of salacca fruit.
- Salacca fruit must originate from orchards and packing houses registered with and audited by the national/provincial competent authority.
- Salacca fruit must be undamaged, clean and free from any pests, soil, and other plant materials.
- Supporting operational systems to verify the phytosanitary status of fresh salacca fruit, including pre-export phytosanitary inspection and certification by the Indonesian Agricultural Quarantine Agency, and on-arrival verification by the Australian Department of Agriculture to ensure that the import conditions have been met.
The Director of Animal and Plant Quarantine considers these measures will limit the quarantine risk to a level that is acceptably low to achieve Australia’s appropriate level of protection. The policy is to be taken into account be decision-makers when considering import permit applications for fresh salacca fruit from Indonesia in accordance with the Quarantine Act 1908 and Quarantine Proclamation 1998 as amended.
The final IRA report is available on the department’s website. Printed copies can be provided, if required.
Lois Ransom
A/g First Assistant Secretary
Plant Division
Contact: David Heinrich
Telephone: +61 2 6272 3220
Facsimile: +61 2 6272 3307