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The challenge

Giving confidence to trading partners

With global trade, comes the risk of spreading plant pests and disease.

Biosecurity risks are one of the biggest barriers to market access for Australia’s agriculture industry. Australia needs to provide ongoing confidence to our trading partners that our produce is pest free.

Building on Australia’s strong reputation for biosecurity, new digital tools can simplify and improve how industry and exporters manage plant pest (phytosanitary) risks.

Risk frameworks can be used by governments to support access to overseas and domestic markets. These need to be adaptable to changes in trade protocols as a result of new sustainability standards, geopolitical shifts or new chemical approvals.

Risk frameworks also need to take advantage of, and be responsive to, technological innovation to ensure Australia’s horticulture industry remains competitive.

Australian producers and exporters often need to manage the risk of spreading the Queensland fruit fly.

Our response

Tools to simplify plant pest risk management

Working with industry and government, we are developing adaptable new methods and risk frameworks to manage plant pest risks.

A focus is simplifying, and further validating, existing biosecurity measures to enable trade. We’re also supporting the development of new market access protocols, and assessing their efficacy.

Our research and development includes:

  • Categorising and quantifying how individual phytosanitary measures contribute to reducing risks
  • Selecting the best measures to manage particular pests
  • Validating the effectiveness of measures
  • Developing comprehensive and rigorous data packages to support market access protocols
  • Bringing together disparate data to analyse and support decision-making.

Find out more and access new tools at our phytosanitary knowledge centre.

Tools to manage trade-related pest risks case studies

  • Pests and disease are a major barrier for domestic and international trade. We are developing optical scanning technologies to help protect Australia’s agriculture industry and boost trade related economic prosperity.

  • Science-based tools, like our interactive 'menu of measures', can help improve the way trade-related plant pest risks are managed – protecting biosecurity and enabling market access.

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