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.
Share
The challenge
Finding the best measures to manage plant pest risks for export
Australian farmers are already doing a great job at producing fresh produce that is free of pests and diseases.
We want to give producers a wider range of management options to efficiently reduce biosecurity risks that are recognised for both interstate and international trade.
Strengthening and formalising the science behind biosecurity measures may help trading partners negotiate and agree on market access arrangements more quickly and easily.
Sensors can provide proof that Australian apples are pest-free.
Our response
A menu that sets out the range of options for producers and exporters
We conducted a global review of over 1,800 risk reduction measures for plant pests to understand:
what biosecurity measures are being used
how these measures reduce plant pest risk
how their effectiveness is demonstrated.
We found only 41 unique measures. Many are underutilised because they don't have adequate scientific, trade and regulatory frameworks in place. As a result, market access agreements often rely on just a few, well-known measures.
We developed a menu of measures online tool through our Trusted Agrifood Exports Mission and in collaboration with Hort Innovation.
The tool helps regulators and trading partners consider all available options – including to recognise and quantify the things that farmers do already which reduce risk. For example, we could extend the use of optical scanning imaging technology in fruit grading to also find and remove infested fruit.
The menu can help drive innovation and opportunities to develop and recognise production practices and supply chain technologies that can contribute to biosecurity.
This is transformational biosecurity beyond some of the usual options for reducing trade-related biosecurity risks, such as fumigation of fresh produce and checking produce shipments at borders.
The results
A prototype online tool for further development with industry
We want to keep improving the science-base for plant biosecurity and build international agreement on how the effectiveness of risk management measures is demonstrated – especially for the lesser-known measures and options arising from newer technologies.
This could help increase international trade opportunities for Australian exporters while reducing plant pest risks.
As a next step, a comprehensive digital resource is being developed in collaboration with biosecurity specialists in the Australian and state governments to provide more detail about each measure in the menu and what evidence is required to support their use in trade arrangements.
DESCRIPTION: An orchard of lemon trees appears. A citrus fruit borer moth lands on a lemon close to the camera and lays eggs. A larva burrows out of the same lemon.
NARRATOR: Sometimes the smallest things can stand in the way of negotiating access to markets and trade.
DESCRIPTION:
The orchard becomes the office of the Department of International Trade & Biosecurity. Two government negotiators converse at a board room table with a laptop, papers, a tray of lemons and two non-specific country flags. As they negotiate, speech bubbles appear with images inside. The negotiator on the left has images of a citrus fruit borer moth with a cautio, larvae, damaged fruit and hazard signs. On the right, their images are of lemons, boxes of lemons, lemon delivery trucks and market stores. This conversation does not seem to go well.
NARRATOR:
Finding the best measures to prevent the spread of pests and diseases can be a complex challenge for industry and regulators. So, what tools can help keep trade flowing while protecting global biosecurity?
DESCRIPTION:
The office disappears and the two people are now floating with “risk” symbols connected by tangled lines between them. They both pull on the strings closest to them, causing the “risk” symbols to reorganise into a perfect 4x4 square. Beneath each of the four columns is an icon of an “M” in a circle.
NARRATOR:
CSIRO has developed a collection of innovative tools that help reduce the complexity of managing biosecurity risks.
DESCRIPTION:
The grid of “Risk” symbols is replaced with three sliding bars. Above the sliders, a vertical orange bar chart colomn with a dashed horizontal line through it contains the the word “Acceptable”. The words “Mitigation Measures” appear below the sliders. Both people move the sliders left and right, causing the bar to drop. When the bar drops below the dashed line it turns green.
NARRATOR:
The tools are free to use and enable defencible analysis of risk reduction.
DESCRIPTION:
Everything from before disappears and “Risk Framework” appears inside a light blue box in big, bold white letters.
NARRATOR:
The foundation for these tools is the risk framework.
DESCRIPTION:
“Risk Framework” gets smaller as icons of papers with writing and graphs flow through the scene. Then a rectangle appears containing the four objectives represented by the objective names as spoken by the narrator and a complementing white icon.
NARRATOR:
Our global review showed that phytosanitary risk management measures work in just one of four ways: Minimise exposure to pests, minimize vulnerability to infestation, reduce the rate of infestation, or reduce establishment risk at the destination.
DESCRIPTION:
The objective names disappear and the white icons stay. At the top of the graph appears “Consignment Stage” and the three categories of “Production”, “Post Production”, and “Post Border.” The first three objectives shrink to span across “Production” and “Post production”, while the fourth moves to “Post Border”.
NARRATOR:
Measures can be applied within three distinct consignment stages.
DESCRIPTION:
More icons in blue appear at the bottom of the graph and slowly float to one of the three consignment stages.
NARRATOR:
All risk reducing measures can be categorized and organized within the risk framework.
DESCRIPTION:
The words within the graph disappear while all the smaller blue icons follow the white icons they were categorized with. Tiny icons with a white letter “M” in a blue circle appear underneath all of the blue icons.
NARRATOR:
The menu of measures manual makes it easier…
DESCRIPTION:
We zoom in on four of the blue icons and various “M” icons that are further separating into even more organizational icons.
NARRATOR:
…to compare and select appropriate phytosanitary measures…
DESCRIPTION:
Zooming in even smaller, the camera focus on an “M” icon that reveals a category titled “Hygiene”. Within this box are “Efficacy proof requirements”, “Certification method”, “Measure relationships” and “Usage”.
NARRATOR:
…for any product, pest and market.
DESCRIPTION:
The two government negotiators from the very beginning are back, shaking hands. Along the bottom of the screen are the CSIRO logo and eight icons representing phytosanitary tools.
NARRATOR:
The risk framework and menu of measures are the foundation for a set of new tools…
DESCRIPTION:
A set of hands shuffle papers titled “Market Access Agreement”. On the desk nearby are a pen, plate of lemons and a stamp. The hands pick up the stamp and use it on the papers to mark them “Approved” in red ink.
NARRATOR:
…that allow industry and trade regulators to evaluate and quantify risk management scenarios.
DESCRIPTION:
A world globe appears with dotted lines encircling three times. Three of the lines form a route for cargo ships and the other three form routes for airplanes.
NARRATOR:
Trade partners can now act with greater confidence to agree on biosecurity requirements for market access.
DESCRIPTION:
CSIRO's logo appears with the words “CSIRO Phytosanitary Risk Tools”. They get smaller as CSIRO’s website comes onto the screen. Underneath the website are several icons. At the bottom of the screen appear the words “Funded with the support of Hort Innovation”. A lemon rolls in from the right of the screen. The citrus borer moth lands on it shortly before a hand waves it away.
NARRATOR:
Explore CSIRO’s free phytosanitary risk tools at research.csiro.au/prs.
Our phytosanitary risk tools help keep trade flowing, while protecting global biosecurity.
We have received your enquiry and will reply soon.
We're Sorry
The contact form is currently unavailable. Please try again later. If this problem persists, please call us with your enquiry on 1300 363 400 or +61 3 9545 2176. We are available from 9.00 am to 4.00 pm AEST Monday - Friday.
