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Department of Agriculture

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  1. Home
  2. Biosecurity and trade
  3. Biosecurity
  4. Import risk analyses
  5. Animal import risk analyses
  6. Review of prawns and prawn products
  7. Prawn imports and biosecurity

Sidebar first - Biosecurity

  • Review of prawns and prawn products
    • Background: prawn and prawn products review
    • Prawn imports and biosecurity
    • Submissions received on the Review of prawns and prawn products – draft report
    • Submissions received on Australia’s current prawn import policy

Prawn imports and biosecurity

Australians love their prawns so much, we need to import them from overseas to keep up with demand.

But we don’t want diseases arriving in Australia with those imports.

Seafood disease experts have studied the biosecurity risks for prawn imports and recommend we strengthen our requirements even further.

So, we’re introducing stronger rules for importing prawns.

This is to help reduce the chances of diseases entering Australia and affecting our prawn industry.
Which means more prawns on your plate.

Learn more about the new measures that protect our seafood industries and unique environment at agriculture.gov.au/prawns.

Fishing in Australia’s waterways is a popular pastime and a great way to fill our dinner plates.

But before you load up your hook, make sure you know where your bait comes from. If you’re using prawns as bait, you must use prawns you’ve either caught yourself, or from a bait shop.

Prawns sold in supermarkets and seafood outlets are only for people to eat and should never be used as bait.

This is because there’s a small chance prawns from food outlets can harbour diseases. These diseases don’t affect humans, but they can have a drastic impact on marine life and our prawn industry.

Prawns from bait shops are safe to use as bait as they’ve been caught locally or specially treated.

It’s everyone’s responsibility to look after our precious resources so we can all continue to enjoy delicious, fresh seafood that’s disease-free.

Find out more about how we’re protecting Australia’s seafood at agriculture.gov.au/prawns.

Why we import prawns

Australians love seafood and prawn imports help us meet domestic demand. During 2020-21, Australia produced 8,700 tonnes of prawns and in 2022, we imported more than 38,000 tonnes of prawns to meet local demand.

Importing also offers a range of benefits such as competitive pricing, a greater variety of products and product availability during seasonal shortfalls.

If Australia decided to ban food imports from other countries without scientific proof, not only would we deny Australian consumers the right to choose, but other countries would have the right to ban Australian exports. This would have serious consequences for our farmers and producers, the broader economy and all Australians.

Learn more about why we carry out risk analyses and our international obligations.

Cooked vs uncooked prawn imports

Australia is a member of the World Trade Organization (WTO) and is committed to lowering trade barriers and opening markets when it is safe to do so. If Australia can determine import conditions which manage the biosecurity risk of a product, there is no reason to reject the trade and these conditions must be offered as an option for importers, exporters and consumers.

This often means there are multiple import conditions for one commodity, such as imported prawns. Cooking is one import condition that has been assessed as effective for managing biosecurity risks of imported prawns. Other effective import conditions are processing into products, such as dumplings or dim sims, and a combination of head, shell and gut removal, and batch testing in the country or export and in Australia.

White spot disease and food safety

White spot disease is only known to affect crustaceans and not humans. So, eating prawns with white spot disease does not pose any human health or food safety concerns.

Never use supermarket prawns for bait

Raw prawns sold in supermarkets are imported for people to eat. They are safe for humans, but there is a small chance they may carry exotic diseases, which can affect our native aquatic animals.  If an infected raw prawn is used as bait, white spot disease or other exotic diseases could be introduced into Australia’s aquatic environments and cause severe consequences.

Prawns from a bait supplier are safe to use as bait or berley, as they’ve been caught locally or treated with gamma irradiation. You can also catch your own bait. When catching your own bait, remember there are restrictions on the movement of prawns and other aquatic animals in place across Australia, so be aware of the restrictions in the area you're fishing.

Irradiation and uncooked prawns

Before food can be irradiated it must be approved by the Food Standards Australia and New Zealand (FSANZ). FSANZ does a safety assessment based on best practice and internationally accepted risk analysis principles.

FSANZ has approved the use of irradiation on some types of food, such as fresh fruit and vegetables, but prawns are not approved.

Further information on irradiation is available on the FSANZ website.

About the prawn review

The prawn review is a biosecurity risk analysis, which is a key part of managing Australia’s biosecurity. We are committed to maintaining high biosecurity standards and only allow trade where the science says it is safe to do so.

More information about the risk analysis process can be found at:

  • Conducting a biosecurity risk analysis
  • Biosecurity Import Risk Analysis guidelines.

Learn more about why we carry out risk analyses and our international obligations.

We initiated this review following the Queensland outbreak of white spot disease in 2016–17, and in recognition of new and emerging diseases and advances in scientific knowledge since the release of the Generic import risk analysis report for prawns and prawn products 2009.

We have assessed the biosecurity risks of importing prawns and prawn products intended for human consumption and developed import conditions to manage the identified risks.

Learn more about why we carry out risk analyses and our international obligations.

At a glance: read the report highlights and recommendations.

Download

Fact sheet - Review of the biosecurity risks of imported prawns for human consumption (PDF 1.0 MB)
Fact sheet - Review of the biosecurity risks of imported prawns for human consumption (DOCX 211 KB)

If you have difficulty accessing these files, visit web accessibility for assistance.

Assessing the biosecurity risk of prawn imports

Biosecurity risk analyses assess the biosecurity risks associated with the importation of a range of goods into Australia. If the risks are found to exceed the level of biosecurity risk that is acceptable to Australia, import conditions are applied to reduce them to an acceptable level. If the application of import conditions is not able to reduce biosecurity risk to an acceptable level, the goods cannot be imported.


Read the full report “Review of the biosecurity risks of prawns imported from all countries for human consumption”.

Report and prevent

If you suspect prawns may be infected with an exotic disease, like white spot disease, call the Emergency Animal Disease Hotline on 1800 675 888 immediately.

The best way to help prevent exotic diseases entering Australian waterways is to:

  • Never use supermarket prawns as bait or berley, and only use prawns from bait suppliers or catch your own bait.
  • Appropriately dispose of unwanted bait and seafood.

For more information

Contact the Prawn Review Liaison Officer: prawnreview@aff.gov.au

General enquiries

Call 1800 900 090

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Page last updated: 07 July 2023

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.

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