07 June 2021
Who does this notice affect?
Importers of propagatable fresh cut flowers and foliage.
Propagatable species are described in the List of species of fresh cut flowers and foliage with alternative conditions for import – mainland and in BICON.
What has changed?
From 1 July 2021 the Department of Agriculture, Water and the Environment (the department) will trial a new test to verify that propagatable species of imported fresh cut flowers and foliage have been devitalised prior to export.
Further information on the new test includes:
- Consignments will be randomly selected for testing.
- Importers and their brokers will be notified when a consignment has been selected via the AIMS direction ‘Administration – Devitalisation Testing’.
- The department will request verbal consent to take the sample from the Person in charge at the time of inspection. Importers are requested to liaise with their broker and Class 2.4 Approved Arrangement to advise that verbal consent will be requested from the Person in charge at the point of inspection to ensure unnecessary delays to the clearance of the consignment.
- Samples will only be taken and sent for testing only if the consignment has passed its initial inspection and there are no biosecurity issues associated with the consignment.
- The sample will consist of 10 stems of one flower type from the 600 unit sample. Where possible officers will be encouraged to use any broken or damaged stems from the inspection that meet the above requirements.
- The direction ‘Administration – Devitalisation Testing’ will not be held open pending test results. It will be closed once the sample has been sent. Consignments can then be released from biosecurity control if there are no biosecurity issues associated with the consignment.
- The department will engage directly with exporting National Plant Protection Organisations if there is evidence that pre-export devitalisation has not occurred.
- There will be no charge to importers for this verification activity while the testing is being trialled.
Further information
If you have questions or need further information, you can contact our Import Services team on:
- Email at imports ("T2-Imported cut flowers-New devitalisation trial")
- Phone (from within Australia): 1800 900 090
- Phone (from outside Australia): + 61 3 8318 6700