Skip to main content Skip to main navigation Skip to search
Home

Top navigation main

  • News & media
  • Jobs
  • Ministers
  • Contact us
Main menu

AWE Main

  • Agriculture and land
    Agriculture and land Building stronger and more sustainable agriculture, fisheries, forestry and land care.
    • Animal health
    • Climate change and agriculture
    • Drought, disaster and rural support
    • Farming, food and drought
    • Fisheries
    • Forestry
    • Levies and charges on agricultural products
    • Mouse infestation advice
    • Plant health
    Xylella

    Protect against unwanted plant pests

    Our biosecurity system helps protects us. Everyone has a role in supporting our biosecurity system.

    Find out more

  • Biosecurity and trade
    Biosecurity and trade
    • Aircraft, vessels and military
    • Biosecurity policy
    • Cats and dogs
    • Exporting
    • Importing
    • Pests, diseases and weeds
    • Public awareness and education
    • Trade and market access
    • Travelling or sending goods to Australia
    • Report a concern
    Brown marmorated stink bug

    BMSB Seasonal Measures

    Australia has strengthened seasonal measures to manage the risk of BMSB.

    View our seasonal measures

  • Science and research
    Science and research Undertaking research and collecting data to support informed decisions and policies.
    • Australian Bureau of Agricultural and Resource Economics and Sciences (ABARES)
    • Plant Innovation Centre
    Abares

    ABARES Insights

    Get 'snapshots’ of agricultural, forestry and fisheries industries, or analysis of key issues.

    Find out more

  • About us
    About us We enhance our agricultural industries and trade, and manage the threat of biosecurity risks to Australia.
    • Accountability and reporting
    • Assistance, grants and tenders
    • Contact us
    • Fees and charges
    • News and media
    • Our commitment to you
    • Payments
    • People and jobs
    • Publications
    • What we do
    • Who we are
    Budget 2025-26

    Budget 2025-26

    The 2025–26 Portfolio Budget Statements were released on 25 March 2025.

    Find out more

  • Online services
    Online services We do business with you using online platforms. This makes it easier for you to meet your legal requirements.
Department of Agriculture

Breadcrumb

  1. Home
  2. Biosecurity and trade
  3. Import
  4. Importing goods
  5. Plants and plant products
  6. Importing plant-based animal feed

Sidebar first - Import

  • Plants and plant products
    • Bulk grain
      • Bulk grain guidance and templates
      • Managing the biosecurity risks of imported bulk grain
    • Cut flowers and foliage
      • Managing pests
      • Supply chain management system requirements
      • Importing cut flowers for commercial use guide
    • Food, drink and supplements
    • Fresh produce
    • Live plants
      • Approved sources of Phalaenopsis
      • Approved sources of tissue cultures free of media
      • Emergency measures for Xylella
      • Live plant forms
    • Managing plant imports biosecurity risk
    • Plant-based animal feed
      • Guide to engaging and undertaking third party audits of processed plant-based stockfeed facilities
      • Infographic - importing processed plant-based animal feed
      • Plant-based animal feed and fertiliser forms
      • Requirements for facilities manufacturing and exporting processed plant-based stockfeed and their ingredients to Australia
    • Plant products applied to soils and plants
    • Seeds for planting
      • Applications for approval of new phytosanitary treatments for seeds
      • Coversheet for seed for planting consignments
      • Department approved seed purity testing laboratories
      • Emergency measures: Tomato brown rugose fruit virus
      • Emergency measures for tomato and capsicum seed: Tomato mottle mosaic virus Questions and Answers
      • International Clean Seed Pathway Workshop
      • Pathogen test request form
      • Reviewing laboratory test reports checklists
      • Seed contaminants and tolerance tables
      • Vegetable seeds policy review
    • Plant research material
    • Processing imported plant material in Australia
    • Timber, bamboo and wood products
      • Treatments for timber and timber products
        • Timber permanent preservative treatment requirements
          • Approved timber permanent preservative formulations
          • Timber preservation standards
      • Canadian Sawn Wood Certification Program (CSWCP)
      • Imports for non-commercial (personal) use
      • Types of timber, bamboo, and related products
      • Non-standard import permits for timber and plant products not for human consumption

Importing plant-based animal feed

The major types of plant-based animal feed are hay, processed stockfeed, pet food, aquaculture feed and bulk grain. Learn more about importing bulk grain.

Imported animal feed poses a high biosecurity risk. It can provide a direct pathway for exotic pests and diseases that can harm humans, animals, crops and the environment.

Diseases that can be spread through animal feed include:

  • foot and mouth disease
  • Karnal Bunt
  • infectious bursal disease
  • Khapra beetle
  • Newcastle disease.

If introduced, they could devastate our livestock industries, have a significant impact on our grains industries, harm the natural environment and damage Australia’s reputation as an exporter.

We work with industry offshore, at the border and onshore in Australia to manage the associated risks with imported animal feed to keep our biosecurity protected.

Hay or fodder imports

Hay has never been imported into Australia for stockfeed.

It poses a high biosecurity risk. This means any import conditions we set to reduce these risks would be very strict, making them likely to be prohibitively expensive.

Domestic alternatives

There are domestic alternatives available. Check with your state or territory government for advice on sourcing local stockfeed.

Some states and territories restrict the movement of stockfeed from interstate locations to limit the risk of spreading pests and diseases.

Be aware of these requirements before you buy.

Check biosecurity restrictions in your state or territory.

Before you import

You must apply for an import permit for all animal feed, regardless of quantity. You must have this permit before you ship consignments to Australia.

You must provide extensive technical information to support your application.

Where we determine the risks associated with certain imported animal feed can’t be sufficiently reduced through processing offshore, we may permit further processing onshore at an approved arrangement class 3.0.  

Learn more about applying for an approved arrangement class 3.0.

We assess each import application against our long-established policies, applying strict requirements to manage the risks. We will only permit the import if we are confident the risks can be managed.

Make sure you understand the following assessment and risk management processes for the type of animal feed you are importing.

See our infographic on importing processed plant-based animal feed for a simplified look at the end-to-end permit application process.

You must have a permit to import any plant-based animal feed into Australia, including processed stockfeed and pet food.

To apply for a permit:

  1. Check the import conditions in our Biosecurity Import Conditions system (BICON):
    • Stockfeed, supplements and ingredients of plant origin
    • Birdseed
    • Pet food, supplements and ingredients of plant origin
  2. Complete the production questionnaire.
  3. Submit your production questionnaire with your import permit application in the BICON system.

When we receive your application, we will:

  • check that all information is supplied and assess the application and the production questionnaire
  • decide if any audits are required
  • advise you of the outcome of our assessment.

We will only assess your application when you have supplied all required information.

We will need to audit offshore manufacturing facilities and export pathways for imported processed stockfeed and their ingredients, such as:

  • Soybean meal
  • Palm kernel expeller
  • Copra meal
  • Corn gluten meal
  • Dried distiller’s grains
  • Sugar beet pulp
  • Pea protein meals
  • Wheat bran or millrun
  • Canola meal
  • Cottonseed meal
  • Sunflower meal
  • Compound feeds.

Audits may also be required for other plant-based animal feed products, depending on the level of biosecurity risk including the potential for diverting that product for stockfeed use.

Audit process

Desk audit:

We will ask you to complete our audit questionnaire for the overseas manufacturer and other facilities involved in the export of your product. Submit the completed audit questionnaire to us at imports@awe.gov.au (put ‘attention: Plant tier 2’ in the subject line).

Learn more about our biosecurity requirements for export facilities.

We will then assess the information provided to ensure that biosecurity risks are managed at every step of the import pathway – from the offshore farm to arrival of the goods at Australia’s border.

Desk audits take approximately 1-5 days, when all required information is supplied.

  1. Our auditors check that facilities are managing biosecurity risks to acceptable levels. Areas we audit include:
    • country biosecurity status
    • crop production methods
    • transport
    • processing method (temperatures and duration)
    • post processing integrity to limit contamination
    • export loading pathways.
  2. Results are provided to the assessment team.

Site audit:

We may need to undertake a site audit of the manufacturing facility and other export facilities, when:

  • the facility is new
  • the size of the farms used to source the inputs are small
    • small farms with limited mechanical production are a higher risk than broad acre farms using mechanical production and harvesting
  • the country’s animal health status is considered higher risk
  • there is high risk material on site
    • animal-based materials stored at the manufacturing facility may increase biosecurity risk
    • sharing production line with other raw material may increase biosecurity risk
  • there is a history of non-compliance including suspension of import permits
  • we need to verify the effectiveness of corrective actions to address non-conformances.

Departmental site audits typically takes 1-5 days, not including time for preparation, travel and reporting. The importer pays all associated costs.

Using third party auditors

We’re trialling the use of independent, third party auditors to undertake site audits on our behalf.

If we determine that the site audit can be conducted by a third party auditor:

1. we will assess the auditor’s suitability to undertake the site audit

We will ask you to identify a potential third party auditor and provide them our third party auditor application form to complete. In completing the form they should also refer to our:

  • importing processed plant-based animal feed infographic
  • guideline for third party audits of processed plant-based stockfeed facilities
  • Facility requirements.

Note: at this point it would be useful to advise any export facilities that a third party will be auditing their site on our behalf and that any documentation relating to the facility will be shared with the third party auditor when they undertake the audit.

When we receive the completed third party auditor application form, we will assess the third party’s suitability to undertake the audit, including whether they are:

  • competent
  • impartial
  • accredited as a FAMI-QS or GMP+ international certification body, or against ISO/IEC 17021-1:2015 and ISO/TS 22003:2013, and is experienced auditing the animal feed sector or food safety management systems.

Once our assessment is complete we will notify you and the auditor of our decision.

2. third party auditor prepares a site audit plan

We will provide the auditor a copy of the outcomes of our desk audit and any associated documents and records to assist them prepare a site audit plan. 

Once we are happy with the proposed plan, the auditor will work with the overseas facility to schedule the site audit.

3. third party auditor conducts the site audit and reports outcomes

The third party auditor will conduct the site audit according to the audit plan approved by us. They will share initial findings with the facility upon completion.

The auditor will share final outcomes with us. We will review within 20 business days and may seek further evidence or clarification before approving the report. 

We will provide the final audit report to the import permit applicant and the overseas facility to take corrective action as necessary.  

Learn more about engaging and undertaking third party site audits of processed plant-based stockfeed facilities.

If we approve your application, we will send you a draft import permit with conditions that need to be met.

When you accept the draft and agree to the conditions you will be issued a permit. The permit will be valid for two years.

In some cases it may not be possible to meet the required conditions. In this case a permit will not be issued.

All time spent assessing an import permit (including departmental time spent on audits) is cost recovered.

There is a scheduled fee of $127 (electronic lodgement) plus a $462 assessment fee. The assessment fee covers the first 3 hours of your assessment. Extra assessment time is charged at $39 per ¼ hour.

See our charging guidelines for more details.

To minimise assessment charges, please ensure all the information you provide is accurate.

You will be responsible for all costs associated with departmental site audits. This includes airfares, accommodation, meals and fee for service costs. All costs will be outlined in a service level agreement.

For third party site audits, you will be required to meet all costs borne by the third party auditor.

Need help?

Email the Imports team or call 1800 900 090.

See all drought and rural support we provide.

Resources

  • Infographic - importing processed plant-based animal feed
  • Minimum documentary and import declaration requirements
  • Australian Interstate Quarantine
  • Biosecurity procedures are feed for thought
  • Buying feed at the right price
  • Drought assistant contacts
  • Drought feed calculator app
  • Drought feeding alternatives
  • Australian Ruminant Feed Ban
  • Livestock feeding and nutrition
  • Feed quality service

General enquiries

Call 1800 900 090

Contact us online

Report a biosecurity concern

Thanks for your feedback.
Thanks! Your feedback has been submitted.

We aren't able to respond to your individual comments or questions.
To contact us directly phone us or submit an online inquiry

CAPTCHA
This question is for testing whether or not you are a human visitor and to prevent automated spam submissions.

Please verify that you are not a robot.

Skip
Page last updated: 29 June 2024

We acknowledge the continuous connection of First Nations Traditional Owners and Custodians to the lands, seas and waters of Australia. We recognise their care for and cultivation of Country. We pay respect to Elders past and present, and recognise their knowledge and contribution to the productivity, innovation and sustainability of Australia’s agriculture, fisheries and forestry industries.

Artwork: Protecting our Country, Growing our Future
© Amy Allerton, contemporary Aboriginal Artist of the Gumbaynggirr, Bundjalung and Gamilaroi nations.

Footer

  • Contact us
  • Accessibility
  • Disclaimer
  • Privacy
  • FOI

© Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry

Facebook X LinkedIn Instagram