Fumigation Certificate Requirements
This has now become a very important issue, as fumigation certificates that don’t comply with the new requirements will soon not be valid for clearance purposes.
The Dept of Agriculture, Water & the Environment (DAWE) have updated the requirements under industry notice 152-2021 Documentary requirements for fumigation certificates for imported goods.
What has changed:
- Updated minimum documentary and import declaration requirements policy version 4.0, documentary requirements for fumigation certificates are changing.
- Current version 3.0 requirements states that treatment providers other that the recognised department schemes (AFAS, BMSB) or to address the khapra beetle are required to make a statement related to plastic wrapping of the goods only. (full details on DAWE’s site.
Revised Policy (version 4.0) Requirements:
- The revised policy came into effect 2 August 2021, enabling single statements to be used on all methyl bromide and sulfuryl fluoride certificates, irrespective of treatment provider.
- A statement confirming that the target of the fumigation conforms to the plastic wrapping, impervious surface and timber thickness requirements at the time of fumigation, as per Appendix 3 of the Methyl Bromide Fumigation Methodology.
OR
- A statement confirming that the target of the fumigation conforms to the plastic wrapping, impervious surface and timber thickness requirements at the time of fumigation, as per Appendix 2a of the Sulfuryl Fluoride Fumigation Methodology.
Reasons for the changes:
- Current statement do not address the timber thickneess and impervious coating, effective fumigations need to be conducted.
- No action is required for good fumigated prior to export to Australia under AFAS, and to address the risk of BMSB and the khapra beetle.
All other offshore fumigations:
- All other exported goods to Australia from 2 August 2021 require fumigation and treatment providers need to be aware of the new requirements.
- Goods arriving into Australia from 2 August 2021 with a fumigation certificate not bearing the new statement will be subject to inspection/treatments if new documentation cannot be obtained.
