PEQ Facilities Standard

Post Entry Quarantine for Plants - Facilities Standard

Posted 23 June 2016

Changes to levels of quarantine after revised PEQ standard takes effect

The new PEQ standard comes into force on 8 March 2017. Any PEQ facilities that become operational after 1st March 2016 must comply with all requirements set out in the new standard.

Facilities that were operational before 1st March 2016 must continue to comply with the requirements of 1999 standard until such a time as they are approved by MPI for operation under the new standard. Implementation arrangements for existing PEQ facilities (operational before 1st March 2016) are set out in Part 1.4 of the new standard.

The Standard relates to transitional facilities for Post Entry Quarantine (PEQ) for Plants that hold any plant material imported as nursery stock or seed for sowing that requires PEQ before the plant material can be given a biosecurity clearance, moved to another facility, or exported. The purpose of this standard is to set out criteria relating to building, maintaining and operating this kind of transitional facility.

MPI advise that there will be no change in the level of PEQ for most imported nursery stock.

• All ornamental plant species currently eligible for quarantine in a Level 1 or Level 2 facility will remain in the same level of quarantine.
• High value crops from offshore MPI accredited facilities are currently held in either Level 2 or Level 3 PEQ (known as level 3B under the revised standard). The same levels will apply once the new standard comes into effect.
• All species currently imported into a Level 3 PEQ facility will be expected to enter the same level of quarantine (i.e. Level 3B) when the revised standard takes effect. Both Level 3 facilities that are currently allowed to import whole plants already comply with the revised requirements, so this will not have any effect on ongoing imports.

Notes: 

• For all species, the level of PEQ will be reassessed when the import health standard is next updated, or (for material from accredited offshore facilities) when the offshore facility is next audited. For example, as part of the current review of the Citrus schedule in the nursery stock IHS, MPI is considering whether Level 2, 3A or 3B is the most appropriate level of quarantine.
• MPI may change the level of quarantine if there is a change in the risk profile of a particular plant species. For example if a new disease is recorded as being associated with a particular plant species, it may be necessary to impose a higher level of quarantine. An example of this is when MPI discovered that phytoplasmas may be present in Rosa nursery stock. In that case, the level of PEQ was changed from Level 1 to Level 2. This was because phytoplasmas could not be contained in a Level 1 facility.  

Documents can be found on MPI's webpage Transitional & containment facilities - Requirements:

• the Facilities Standard - see "download document" link at the bottom of the panel that opens,
• a Guidance document and
• a Sample Operating Manual - both PDF and DOC (Word) forms - you can edit and customise the latter for your facility.
• The 1999 Standard

Click on the "plus" to the right of the "Post Entry Quarantine for Plants - Facilities Standard" link.