28 May 2025
Who does this notice affect?
This notice affects importers of plant products for human consumption (e.g. rice, beans, lentils, dried chilli, cumin and coriander seed), freight forwarders, biosecurity industry participants and accredited persons operating under the department’s approved arrangement class 19.
What has changed?
As advised in IIAN 111-2025 and IIAN 148-2025, the Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry (the department) has now implemented the following three key changes to our requirements for pre-border khapra beetle treatments and phytosanitary certification:
- Revised wording for gas permeable packaging additional declarations
- New NPPO supervision requirement and additional declaration for treatments undertaken by a provider that is listed as suspended, under review, withdrawn or unacceptable on our lists of registered and unregistered treatment providers
- Removal of fourth concentration sampling tube for container fumigation treatments.
These changes apply to high-risk plant products and certain sea containers exported from khapra beetle target-risk countries.
These changes are further detailed in the Factsheet: Khapra beetle treatments for Australian imports Upcoming changes to treatment and certification requirements.
Consignment eligibility and transitional period
All affected import conditions have been updated on BICON. These revised requirements apply only to consignments where the phytosanitary certificate is issued on or after 28 May 2025, regardless of the date the consignment arrived in Australia.
For any phytosanitary certification issued before 28 May 2025, the previous measures will continue to apply.
A transitional period of at least 10 weeks is now in place and is reflected in BICON. The department will identify consignments that do not meet the new requirements and work with the importer to support compliance for future consignments.
The transitional period completion date will be shared in a future notification and published in BICON.
Import permits
Affected import permits have been updated to reflect the new conditions.
We have contacted affected import permit holders to advise them of these changes and to provide further information about the variation.
Online information session recordings
We held virtual information sessions in May 2025 to update all stakeholders on the changes.
You can access the recordings, presentation slides, and answers to questions asked during the information sessions at the following webpages, in the ‘Recent changes’ box:
- Measures for plant products under the khapra beetle urgent actions
- Measures for sea containers under the khapra beetle urgent actions
Further information
If you have any questions, contact Plant Import Operations via email at imports@aff.gov.au (please title the subject line of the email 'Plant T2 - Khapra urgent actions - Phytosanitary updates') or by phone on 1800 900 090.