The department has created this set of guidelines to assist those wishing to prepare fish products in Australia for export, as well as those wishing to export the final products.

This guideline sets out mandatory minimum testing requirements for export establishments that prepare fish products. The document also contains European Union (EU)-specific requirements for fish products exported to the EU. The requirements are mandatory, must be incorporated into the manufacturing establishment’s Approved Arrangement and will be verified through regular export audits.

The Department of Agriculture, Water and the Environment audits export registered establishments to verify the procedures documented in their Approved Arrangement (AA) and assure compliance with export legislation.

​A declaration of compliance is a statement made by the manufacturer regarding the eligibility of the prescribed fish and fish products being exported.

The declaration must state the specific fish products being exported meets all the requirements of the Export Control Act 2020, and any specific importing country requirement. This shows the product is:

The Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry manages requirements for the approved arrangement (AA) that an establishment must have in place to be export registered. Keep reading for more information on AAs, and also make sure that you check out our short videos on the

Trigger for sampling abalone

When Tasmania’s Shellfish Market Access Program (ShellMAP) monitoring detects the presence of biotoxins and/or potentially toxic phytoplankton in waters and/or shellfish meat samples that contain paralytic shellfish toxins (PST) levels which result in closure of shellfish harvest areas (i.e. above 0.8 mg/kg), the Department of Agriculture, Water and the Environment (the department) requires abalone sampling information from potentially affected abalone catch zones.

Paralytic Shellfish Toxin (PST) is a shellfish neurotoxin that occurs in shellfish following a hazardous algal bloom event of specific phytoplankton/algae. Australia has set a regulatory level of 0.8mg/kg for bivalve molluscs (i.e. oysters, mussels etc).

All facilities that produce, prepare or store fish and fish products for export must be registered with us. This includes:

• Australian fish ingredient suppliers
• freight forwarders
• manufacturers
• processors
• producers
• storage facilities
• vessels where product is packed on board for export
• any establishment where the goods are stored or loaded for export.

This excludes the wharf and airport terminal.

If you operate an export registered establishment, you must:

Date of issue: 01 November 2019

Date of effect: 01 November 2019

Attention:

The department publishes the results of all animal and plant products tested under the National Residue Survey.

Test result information is available through:

• residue testing datasets, published each financial year
• commodity and summary brochures for the most recent year.

The datasets show the full range of commodities tested each financial year. The brochures provide an overview of the results and program methodology.