On 29 April 2024, the Australian Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry (DAFF) issued Notice 77-2024, announcing the upcoming enhanced Compliance Intervention Program (CBIS) for enhanced inspections of herbal tea bags, raw nuts, dried coconut products (excluding desiccated), powdered herbs and spices, fresh and dried mushrooms and truffles from all countries. The main contents include:

(1) Products involved. Teabags from all countries (0902); Unprocessed nuts from all countries (0802.12.00.08, 0801.22.00.37, 0802.22.00.10, 0802.32.00.12, 0802.52.00.23, 0802.62.00.25, 0801.31.00.38, 0801.32.00.39); Herbal powders and spices (0904.22.00.05, 0904.22.00.04, 0910.12.00.12, 0910.30.00.03, 0712.90.90.78); Copra products from all countries (excluding dehydrated copra) (0801.12.00.40, 0801.19.00.42); Fresh and dried mushrooms and dew from all countries (0709.59.00.90, 0709.52.00.20, 0709.53.00.30, 0709.54.00.40, 0709.55.00.50, 0709.56.00.60);

(2) Major changes. The first is to trial CBIS (Herbal tea bags) on the document control path, the department will extend CBIS to the document control path and start the trial of herbal tea bags, once the delivery date is /confirm/ied, the department will provide more information about the trial. The second is to improve the utilization rate of CBIS by using file problems. The department will create new profile issues to increase usage of existing CBIS goods and support new CBIS pathways. This will also enable it to remove the AQIS Commodity Code (ACC) where relevant. This will minimize the amount of goods transferred to manual processing and, if the requirements are met, will also reduce the department's intervention with importers that comply;

(3) For the import of herbal tea bags, the following general problems will occur. Biosafety: whether the goods come from permitted plant ingredients (except tea trees), are commercially packaged in the form of tea bags or capsules, and are imported for end-use for human consumption within the scope of tariff code: 0902. The goods shall be subject to CBIS conditions; If not, the goods will be managed according to BICON.

(4) A description of the relevant import declarations and inspections of imported raw nuts, including almonds, hazelnuts, Brazil nuts, macadamia nuts, pistachios and walnuts;

(5) Several CBIS eligible import routes have been reviewed and by improving compliance, DAFF will revise intervention rates for almonds, hazelnuts, Brazil nuts, macadamia nuts, pistachios and walnuts.

Learn more: https://www.agriculture.gov.au/biosecurity-trade/import/industry-advice/2024/77-2024