Almond industry to renew calls for biosecurity levy

The Almond Board of Australia thinks freight companies should pay their fair share of the clean-up bill for the next biosecurity breach.

Australia’s almond industry will front a Senate committee this week renewing calls for a biosecurity levy.

Almond Board of Australia chief executive Tim Jackson will head to Canberra to tell the rural and regional affairs and transport committee it was time the freight industry helped foot the clean up bill for the next biosecurity incursion.

The nation’s billion dollar almond industry is quietly counting its losses after a failed pollination season in Victoria, home to more than half of Australia’s almond industry, where just 80,000 of the 300,000 hives needed to pollinate the crop were available due to the state’s ban on bees from NSW.

Almond pollination has been stymied by state border closures. PICTURE: Dale Webster

NSW is in the grips of an emergency response to eradicate varroa mite, first detected more than two months ago in a sentinel hive near the Port of Newcastle.

The cost of the state’s efforts to wipe out the pest are running into the millions of dollars, which is borne by the bee keeping and almond industries and state and federal governments.

Mr Jackson said these costs needed to be shared more equitably, given it was industry footing the bill despite it not being responsible for the incursion.

“The cost isn’t shared with freight companies, when it should be as part of a biosecurity levy,” he said.

Two years ago the federal government shelved plans for an onshore biosecurity levy despite committing to one in the 2018-19 federal budget after sustained lobbying from freight industry groups.

The levy was designed to bring in hundreds of millions dollars to fund biosecurity efforts with a $10.02 cents levy on 20ft containers and a $1 a tonne levy on bulk imports coming via sea from July 1, 2019.

NSW Apiarists Association president Steve Fuller backed the almond industry’s push for a biosecurity levy.

“We’re all in this together, we all have to play our part,” he said.

On Thursday Mr Jackson will also call for a national approach to pollination next year.

Victoria, South Australia and Queensland have slammed their borders shut to all bees from NSW, with no indication as to when they would reopen.

“We had the ridiculous situation where bees were sitting on one side of the river (in NSW) but they wouldn’t let them across the border,” he said.

Freight Traders Association director Paul Zalai said the industry was never opposed to the levy, but disagreed with how the levy was to be collected, and was receptive to a reworking of the scheme.

“The point of collection needed to be at the import declaration point of collection, so paid at a net rate and not passed on down the supply chain.

“If an extra levy was required, use the existing mechanism, being the import declaration. We would also like to see a return on the investment. We want appropriate resources to ensure trade facilitation can be managed at the same time, currently we have delays of seven weeks for biosecurity officers to complete inspections,” Mr Zalai said.