Date of Issue: 12 July 2012
Date of Effect: Immediate
Country: French Polynesia
In accordance with advice from French Polynesian authorities, the following export requirements apply for seafood:
Prawns/shrimp
Consignments of prawns must be accompanied by an FX46 certificate with endorsement 4578, issued via EXDOC.
Consignments of prawns can only be exported to French Polynesia if they are:
- fully-shelled (all carapace and cephalothorax removed), de-veined, frozen, prepared and packed for retail sale and on the packaging of which a French label reads as follows: “Ne pas utiliser comme app¿pour la p¿e"; OR
- cooked, pasteurised or sterilised in accordance with the OIE Aquatic Animal Health Code.
Please note, the above requirements allow raw shrimps/ prawns to be exported to French Polynesia for retail sale, providing they are prepared accordingly and are not being exported for fishing bait.
For cooked/pasteurised/sterilised product, information regarding the required treatment parameters can be found in the OIE Aquatic Animal Health Code. Currently, infectious hypodermal and haematopoietic necrosis and white tail disease are OIE listed diseases present in Australia. Therefore, in order to meet French Polynesian requirements, prawn and shrimp products exported to French Polynesia are required to comply with the thermal treatments listed under these diseases.
Should consignments include prawn/shrimp which have originated from a country other than Australia, products must be treated in accordance with the thermal treatments listed under the OIE diseases present in the country of origin. For countries which are declared free from all of the OIE listed diseases for prawns/shrimp, the minimal thermal treatment for prawn/shrimp products exported to French Polynesia is 60¿C for at least one minute.
Crustaceans (excluding prawns/shrimp)
Consignments of crustaceans, excluding prawns/shrimp, must be accompanied by an FX46 certificate with endorsement 4579, issued via EXDOC.
Bivalve molluscs
Consignments of bivalves molluscs must be accompanied by an FX46 certificate with endorsement 4577, issued via EXDOC.
Fish susceptible to Epizootic Haematopoietic Necrosis (EHN) and/or Epizootic Ulcerative Syndrome (EUS)
Consignments of fish susceptible to EHN and/or EUS must be accompanied by an FX46 certificate with endorsement 4576, issued via EXDOC.
Important note: fish susceptible to EHN and EUS can only be exported to French Polynesia providing they are eviscerated.
For information regarding those species which will need to be eviscerated prior to export, i.e. those susceptible to EHN and/or EUS, please refer to the Diseases of Finfish web page.
Fish that are not susceptible to EHN and EUS
Consignments of fish that are not susceptible to EHN or EUS must be accompanied by an FX46 certificate with endorsement 4575, issued via EXDOC.
Approved Arrangements (AA)
All AQIS-approved establishments and vessels which undertake processing, as defined in the Export Control (Fish and Fish Products) Orders 2005 are eligible to export fish and fish products to French Polynesia. Amendments to your documented food management system to include the above importing country requirements may be required.
For the above commodities the EXDOC system has been coded such that the appropriate certificate will be automatically generated based on the product being exported, i.e. there is no need to populate the template/endorsement field in EXDOC.
Alexandra McLaran
Export Standards Branch
The information provided above is current at the time of writing and is intended for use as guidance only and should not be taken as definitive or exhaustive. The Commonwealth endeavours to keep information current and accurate, however, it may be subject to change without notice. Exporters are encouraged to verify these details with their importers prior to undertaking production/exports. The Commonwealth will not accept liability for any loss resulting from reliance on information contained in this notice.