The Netherlands and Belgium added to Australia's 'Stink Bug risk list'

The ‘Brown marmorated stink bug’ (BMSB) finds its origin in Asia. The six legged triangle shaped insect is rapidly expanding throughout North America and Europe. The bug is an agricultural exotic pest that potentially harms fruit and vegetable crops. In general, stink bugs feed on fruits and are active during the warmer seasons of the year. However, during the colder months, the bugs look for overwintering sites to camp out over the colder days in homes, attics, crawl spaces, vehicles or factories. Juveniles and adults feed on, and as a result severely damage, fruit and vegetable crops. 

Brown marmorated stink bugs form a high biosecurity risk to Australia because of their tendency to hitchhike, highly mobile nature and the lack of effective lures. Therefore, the Australian Department of Agriculture has put together a list of target risk countries that pose a threat:

Vessels, aircrafts and important goods that find any tangible connection in one of these countries will be subject to random onshore checks for presence of BSMB's.

September 1^st until May 31^st, is marked as ‘stink bug risk season’, in which multiple measures will be taken to manage the situation. Those measures will impact all goods that find their origin in, or are shipped from a target risk country. 

What measures will be taken?

The measures applied will depend on the commodity. Goods have been assigned to three categories:

1) Target High Risk goods:

• Mandatory offshore treatment for high risk goods shipped as Breakbulk / Open Top / Flat Rack.
• Mandatory offshore or onshore treatment for high risk goods shipped as FCL, LCL and FAK. If treated onshore, deconsolidation or removal of goods will not be permitted before treatment.
• All tariffs to be considered as HIGH RISK are outlined on the attached document.

2) Target Risk Goods:

• Goods in this category will be subject to increased onshore intervention upon arrival in Australia through random inspections. If BMSB is detected, goods will be directed for onshore treatment.
• All tariffs to be considered as target risk are outlined on the attached document.

3) All Other Goods:

• BMSB seasonal measures do not apply to goods not identified as ‘target HIGH RISK ’ or ‘target risk’. However, goods may be subject to BMSB measures if they are part of a consignment that contains target high risk or target risk goods.

Any vessel that berths at, loads or transships from the target risk countries is also subject to BMSB seasonal measures.

How to handle?

Broekman Logistics is already anticipating the effects and impact the BSMB measures might have on export, assuring our clients to focus on their core business.

For more information, such as which goods are assigned to which category, you can contact our colleague Tomas van der Maarel, on the right.

For more information on our International Freight Forwarding Services you can explore the options here.