22 February 2017
Purpose
This Industry Advice Notice (IAN) is to remind Plant Export Authorised Officers appointed for grain and plant product inspections to refer to the most up-to-date instructional material when performing export inspection activities.
Summary of changes and key points
Plant Export Authorised Officers (AOs) appointed for grain and plant product inspections are reminded to refer to the most up-to-date instructional material available on the Plant Export Operations Manual and ensure that they understand the latest importing country requirements listed on MICoR and import permits. Specifically,
- Only an AO can draw the representative sample and this task cannot be delegated to a non-AO.
- An AO must inspect the flow path prior to loading and record the time it was passed/failed on the Export compliance record (ECR), as per Industry Advice Notice (IAN) 2016-44.
- AOs must record pests and contaminants sighted during every inspection in the “Remarks” or “Comments” field of the ECR, including detections below specified tolerances. For weed seed contamination, where the importing country has not specified particular species, detections may be recorded on the ECR as “unspecified weed seeds below tolerances”. Where an importing country has specified a particular species of weed seed, AOs must record the species detected on the ECR. Recording “Nil contaminants” on the ECR is only appropriate if the AO sees no contaminants in the sample. The recording of contaminants ensures a true and accurate record of the consignment being inspected and assists the department in determining pest and disease prevalence which supports market maintenance.
Background
Observations of recent audits and a review of National Documentation Hub Records indicate that some Plant Export Authorised Officers are not correctly following instructional material when performing export inspection activities for grain and plant products.
Plant Export Operations is committed to the continued improvement of instructional material for plants and plant products export inspection activities, and routinely reviews this material for clarity and currency.
Contact Information
If you have any questions regarding this IAN please email Grain Export or phone 02 6272 3229.
Dr Chris Parker
Assistant Secretary
Plant Export Operations Branch