5 Important Steps of Export Documentation for Plants Products till Cargo Acceptance

As soon as you find an importer for plants and plants-based goods that you wish to export from Australia, the next step is to prepare or obtain necessary export documents and permits. Though there are many steps that you need to follow, some of them require additional care and knowledge. In other words, you need to be prepared in advance about some important things until your consignment meets container acceptance. Here is a discussion to guide you in this direction.

Applying with DAWR

The Department of Agriculture and Water Resources (DAWR) in Australia is responsible for issuing some of the most important documents like export permit and phytosanitary certificates for the export of plants and plants products from the country. In order to apply for these documents, you need to:

• Get familiar with the products in the categories of prescribed and non-prescribed goods as each would have different documentation needs.

• Understand the importing country’s requirements as different countries prescribe different documents to allow the import of these goods.

• Buy or subscribe to an EXDOC software that would be used to interact with the DAWR’s EXDOC system to obtain various documents electronically.

Preparing for Inspection

Before the DAWR issues any of the above-mentioned certificates, it conducts inspections of the goods intended for export in order to evaluate their export compliant quality. For this, the exporter needs to have a registered establishment where the inspection would take place. In case the exporter doesn’t have a registered establishment, he or she can lease one.

An important thing to keep in mind is that the goods should not be packaged before the inspection. If you still need to pack them, make sure to do it in a manner that it would be easy to remove the packaging at the time of inspection.

Obtain EDN

Every export consignment from Australia must have an export declaration number (EDN) assigned by the Australian Customs. For this, the exporters need to submit export declarations to the Customs, including all important details about the consignments. A convenient way of doing it is to apply electronically to the Integrated Cargo System (ICS) of the Customs.

It is also possible to use the Single Electronic Window (SEW) through the DAWR’s EXDOC system to obtain both export permit and EDN simultaneously. It would save a lot of time and documentation cost as well.

Need for COO

If you are exporting your goods to a country that has signed a Free Trade Agreement (FTA) with Australia, you are entitled to enjoy reduced tariffs according to the preferential rates prescribed by the FTA. For this, you need to obtain a certificate of origin (COO) that would confirm that the goods you are planning to export originated in Australia only. A COO can also be obtained electronically from a Chamber of Commerce.

Communicating PRA

Finally, you need to send pre-receival advice (PRA) to the container terminal operators in order to obtain clearance for your consignment. If you are exporting goods that need to be stored under specific temperatures, you must clearly mention the requirement in the PRA.

Most of these documentation needs can be fulfilled using an export documentation software. So, the very first requirement is to choose a good software to sail through the entire process smoothly.