[For stakeholder comments up to 2024-06-29) 

The Australian Government Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry (the department) has prepared this draft report to assess the proposal by Vietnam for market access to Australia for pomelo fruit for human consumption.

Australia currently permits the importation of pomelo fruit from the USA, Israel, Spain and New Zealand for human consumption, provided Australian biosecurity import conditions are met.

This draft report determines that the importation of commercially produced pomelo fruit to Australia from all commercial production areas of Vietnam can be permitted, subject to a range of biosecurity requirements.

This draft report contains details of plant pests that are of biosecurity concern to Australia and are potentially associated with the importation of pomelo fruit from Vietnam. The term ‘pests’ includes both arthropod pests and pathogens. This report also contains risk assessments for the identified quarantine pests and regulated articles, and, where required, proposed risk management measures to reduce the biosecurity risk to an acceptable level, that is, to achieve the appropriate level of protection (ALOP) for Australia.

Nineteen pests have been identified in this risk analysis as requiring risk management measures to reduce the biosecurity risk to an acceptable level. These pests are:

·psyllid: Asian citrus psyllid (Diaphorina citri)false spider mites: Brevipalpus phoenicis species complexfruit flies: carambola fruit fly (Bactrocera carambolae), guava fruit fly (Bactrocera correcta), Oriental fruit fly (Bactrocera dorsalis), peach fruit fly (Bactrocera zonata), melon fly (Zeugodacus cucurbitae) and pumpkin fruit fly (Zeugodacus tau)mealybugs: cocoa mealybug (Exallomochlus hispidus), coffee mealybug (Planococcus lilacinus) and fruit tree mealybug (Rastrococcus invadens)scale insects: tropical grey chaff scale (Parlatoria cinerea), black parlatoria scale (Parlatoria ziziphi) and mulberry scale (Pseudaulacaspis pentagona)spider mites: citrus red mite (Panonychus citri) and Kanzawa spider mite (Tetranychus kanzawai)thrips: chilli thrips (Scirtothrips dorsalis) and onion thrips (Thrips tabaci)bacterium: citrus canker (Xanthomonas citri subsp. citri).

Of these 19 pests:

17 are quarantine pests, including Asian citrus psyllid and false spider mites, which were also identified as regulated articles as they are capable of vectoring pathogens that are quarantine pests for Australia. However, there are no reports of the quarantine viruses vectored by false spider mites being present in Vietnam. Therefore, the regulated article aspect of false spider mites is not applicable to pomelo fruit from Vietnam pathway.2 are non-quarantine pests (chilli thrips and onion thrips) but are identified as regulated articles as they are capable of harbouring and spreading quarantine orthotospoviruses.

The identified pests are the same, or of the same pest groups, as those associated with other horticultural commodities that have been analysed previously by the department.

The proposed risk management measures take account of regional differences in pest distribution within Australia. Three pests requiring risk management measures, Panonychus citri, Pseudaulacaspis pentagona and Tetranychus kanzawai, have been identified as regional quarantine pests for Western Australia. These pests are considered regional quarantine pests as interstate quarantine regulations and enforcement are in place to prevent the introduction and distribution of these pests into Western Australia.

In this draft report the department proposes a range of risk management measures, combined with operational systems, to reduce the risks posed by the 19 identified species to achieve the ALOP for Australia. The proposed measures are:

for Asian citrus psyllid:pest free areas, pest free places of production or pest free production sites; ora systems approach considered to be effective in mitigating the risk of this psyllid on pomelo fruit, and approved by the department; orfruit treatment considered to be effective against psyllids, such as methyl bromide fumigationfor fruit flies: pest free areas, pest free places of production or pest free production sites; or fruit treatment considered to be effective against fruit flies such as irradiationfor false spider mites, mealybugs, scale insects, spider mite and thrips: pre-export visual inspection, and if found, remedial actionfor citrus canker:a systems approach considered to be effective in mitigating the risk of this pathogen on pomelo fruit, and approved by the department.

This draft report has been published on the department website to allow interested parties to provide comments and submissions within the specified consultation period