Biosecurity Hold on Imported Goods — Your Options

A biosecurity hold is a different problem from a customs hold, with different resolution paths and worse cost consequences. The free storage concession that can apply to some customs holds does not apply here. Storage is charged to you from the start.

All Australian ports · Approved-provider treatment arranged · We will tell you if the goods aren’t worth saving

Held by the Australian Border Force instead? A border hold is a different process with different cost consequences — see cargo held by customs.

What a biosecurity hold means

Biosecurity in Australia is administered by the Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry under the Biosecurity Act 2015. It is a separate regime from customs, run by a separate agency, with separate powers. Your customs broker being on top of the entry does not help you here.

A biosecurity officer assesses goods against biosecurity risk. Where risk is identified, a biosecurity direction may be issued. In broad terms, the outcomes available are:

• Treatment — the goods undergo an approved treatment at your cost, and are then reassessed
• Export — the goods are removed from Australia
• Destruction — the goods are destroyed
• Release — the officer is satisfied and the goods proceed

Treatment is the most common outcome and is usually the cheapest, but it is not always available. Some products cannot be treated without being ruined, and for those the choice narrows to export or destruction very quickly.

What commonly triggers a hold

Timber packaging. Pallets, crates, dunnage and bracing that is untreated or lacks compliant marking. This catches shipments of steel, tiles and machinery constantly, because the importer was thinking about the goods and nobody was thinking about the pallet underneath them.

Timber and plant-derived products. Treatment and certification requirements in their own right.

Seasonal stink bug measures. Goods in specified tariff chapters, shipped from listed target risk countries, during a declared season. These may require approved treatment before shipping.

Contamination. Soil, seeds, plant material, insects or animal material found on or in the goods or the container.

Documentation. Treatment certificates that are missing, incomplete, or issued by a provider not approved for that purpose.

The offshore treatment trap

Where seasonal measures require treatment to be performed before shipping, that requirement cannot be satisfied after arrival. If the vessel has sailed without treatment having been performed by an approved offshore provider, onshore treatment may not be an available remedy — and the practical options can reduce to export or destruction.

This is the most expensive single mistake in the biosecurity space, and it is entirely preventable at booking. If you are importing during a declared season from a listed country, the treatment question belongs in the purchase order, not in the arrival paperwork.

Seasonal measures, the country list and the tariff chapters in scope are set each year. Ask us to check what is current for your origin and commodity before you fix a sailing — see our guide to Australian biosecurity.

What a biosecurity hold costs

Assume you are paying for all of it. Specifically:

• Storage is charged to the importer. The FCL free storage concession that can apply to ABF border holds does not extend to biosecurity holds. There is no equivalent concession.
• Container detention runs in parallel, charged by the shipping line, per container per day.
• Inspection and assessment fees apply.
• Treatment is at your cost, and treatment usually requires the container to be moved to an approved facility — which is another transport leg, and another set of charges.
• Export or destruction is at your cost, on top of everything already spent, with no goods at the end of it.

More on demurrage and detention.

The cost curve on a biosecurity hold is steeper than on a customs hold, and the decision point arrives sooner. Where the goods are low-value and the treatment path is long, the arithmetic sometimes says abandon — and it is far better to reach that conclusion in week one than in week five.

We will run those numbers with you honestly, including the version where the answer is that the shipment is not worth saving.

What to do when a direction is issued

1. Read the direction carefully and note precisely what it requires.
Directions specify what must happen and by when. Understanding exactly what is being asked is the entire basis of the response.

2. Establish whether treatment is available for your goods.
Not everything can be treated. Some treatments damage the product beyond use. This single question determines whether you have one option or three.

3. Find an approved provider.
Treatment must be performed by a provider approved for that treatment. Not every facility can perform every treatment, and availability varies by port and by season.

4. Get the cost of each path before choosing.
Treat, export, destroy. Each has a total cost including the storage and detention that accrues while you execute it. Compare all three against the value of the goods, not against each other.

5. Fix the cause, not just the shipment.
If the trigger was untreated packaging or a missing certificate, the next container from the same supplier will do exactly the same thing. The supplier conversation is part of the resolution, not an afterthought.

How we help

What we do

• Establish exactly what the direction requires
• Identify whether treatment is available for your goods, and find an approved provider
• Arrange transport to and from the treatment facility
• Coordinate re-inspection
• Calculate the total cost of each available path, so you can make a commercial decision on numbers rather than on hope
• Manage your storage and detention exposure while it is resolved
• Where the outcome is export or destruction, arrange it
• Work back through the supply chain so the next shipment does not repeat it

More on customs clearance.

What we do not do

• We do not perform biosecurity treatments. Those are done by approved providers.
• We do not issue, vary or lift biosecurity directions. Only a biosecurity officer can.
• We do not certify goods, and we do not provide legal advice.
• We will not tell you a hold will be released, because we do not decide that.

You do not have to be an existing customer

If your cargo is held and you want a second opinion on what you have been told, call. If the answer is that your current provider has it in hand, we will say so.

Biosecurity hold questions

What is a biosecurity hold?
Goods held by the Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry under the Biosecurity Act 2015, pending assessment or action to manage biosecurity risk. It is separate from an Australian Border Force customs hold, with a different agency, different powers and different cost consequences. See cargo held by customs for the ABF side.

Who pays for storage during a biosecurity hold?
The importer. The free storage concession that can apply to FCL sea freight held by the ABF for examination does not extend to biosecurity holds.

Can I treat the goods and get them released?
Often, but not always. Treatment must be available for that commodity, must be performed by an approved provider, and the goods must pass reassessment afterwards. Some products cannot be treated without being destroyed by the treatment itself.

My pallets are the problem, not my goods. Does that matter?
Not to the outcome. Non-compliant timber packaging around perfectly compliant goods will hold the whole consignment. It is one of the most common triggers we see, and one of the easiest to prevent by specifying packaging requirements at order.

What are the stink bug requirements?
Australia applies seasonal measures to goods in specified tariff chapters, shipped from listed target risk countries, during a declared season. Goods in scope may require treatment by an approved provider before shipping. The season dates, country list and tariff chapters are set each year — ask us to check the current measures for your origin and commodity before you fix a sailing.

Does this affect steel, tiles and aluminium, or only timber?
Both. The tariff chapters covered by seasonal measures extend well beyond timber into iron and steel, aluminium, copper, glass, ceramics and stone articles, and a range of manufactured goods. Most construction cargo is capable of falling in scope — see construction freight.

Can I abandon the goods?
Abandonment has its own cost and process consequences and is not simply walking away. If the numbers point in that direction, we will set out what it actually involves before you commit to it.

How do I stop this happening again?
Nearly every repeat biosecurity hold traces back to a supplier practice — packaging, treatment, certification or declaration. Fixing it is a supplier conversation, and it is much easier to have that conversation with a specific direction in hand than in the abstract.

Being selected for an inspection is not the same as receiving a direction — most inspected containers are released. If the direction relates to the brown marmorated stink bug seasonal measures, the treatment options are specific to that programme.

A biosecurity hold does not pause detention. If the container is now past free time, or the empty cannot be returned after the unpack, see container detention charges and empty returns.

Get help with a biosecurity hold

Container number, port, and what the direction says. We will tell you what the options are and what each one costs.

Call 1300 972 040 — or send the details and we will come back to you during normal business hours.