Press Room

The BMSB Risk Season is now upon us!

I have provided below a short summary of what this means for your business, but I would encourage everyone to visit the Departments website for further information as well.

Summary of key points to consider for the 2018-19 BMSB Risk Season:

• What does this mean for importers?: The Department of Agriculture and Water Resources (Quarantine) require mandatory Heat or Methyl Bromide or Sulfuryl fluoride treatment for all sea freighted High Risk and Risk goods before entering Australia
• BMSB 2018-19 Commencement Date: Shipments that depart from 1^st of September 2018 to 30^th of April 2019 for High Risk and Risk containerized goods from the targeted risk countries
• Where can you treat the goods?: As per Quarantines latest announcement; goods can be treated at origin and now after much lobbying by industry bodies at destination
• Australian Quarantine Approved Treatment Centres: Goods treated at either origin or destination can only be treated at Approved facilities (NEOLINK to advise on best solutions on a client by shipment basis)
• Target Risk Countries: USA, Italy, Germany, France, Russia, Greece, Hungary, Romania, Georgia and Japan
• High Risk and Risk Goods: Please refer to the link below for further information on what goods require treatment

LINK: http://www.agriculture.gov.au/import/before/pests/brown-marmorated-stink-bugs

NEOLINK’s Recommended Approach and Next Steps

1. NEOLINK’s recommendation on all goods that require treatment is to treat at Origin and only upon arrival as a last resort. The main reason for this is that there are limited facilities here in Australia that are approved by Quarantine and resources will be stretched incredibly thin to cope with the demand – we anticipate this will be reflective in the pricing for these special types of fumigations as well. As a result; there are also heightened risks that containers will exceed their free detention time and importers will incur incremental costs from the shipping lines as a result. Treating at Origin will avoid the above, but there are also turn around times at origin facilities we have to manage together as well.
2. NEOLINK have been proactively looking at all our clients and reaching to engage on this topic based on previous imported shipments. If you do have new imports from new countries that will be impacted by the BMSB Risk Season, please let us know.
3. NEOLINK will be recommending and providing different options for our clients at origin based on both price, turn around time and location to supplier/origin office.
4. All NEOLINK Account Managers will be proactively reaching out again this week to discuss this with you to go through upcoming shipments and new potential orders that will be affected

I would strongly recommend that if you are impacted by the above to please plan for the extra time on your shipments. Your AM will work closely with you on all of your shipments to co-ordinate treatment in the most efficient and effective way possible, but please ensure you allow for this time over the next 8 months in your supply chain.

If you have any questions, please feel free to reach out to your account manager directly or one of the Directors.