Biosecurity for Market Access | March 2024
While the challenges of trade-related biosecurity continue to evolve, we see exciting opportunities to modernise how risks are managed by applying improved science-based principles and tools.
In this update, we share the fundamentals of how we approach our science. We also invite you to visit our online knowledge centre which provides regulators, industry and researchers with access to our thinking, methods, tools and journal papers.
Our research brings together phytosanitary risk science and systems thinking to drive innovation in how we estimate, model and mitigate biosecurity risks. We have a 2 minute animation to introduce our work – you’ll find it on our home page.
Our researchers collaborate closely with scientific colleagues around the world and partners from agricultural industries, the ag-tech sector and governments, with valuable support from Hort Innovation. Through these updates we hope to contribute to collective efforts across our global network to advance biosecurity and facilitate market access.
Risk reduction à la carte
Biosecurity risks inevitably come with global trade. While most jurisdictions are committed to an evidence-based, risk-based approach to applying biosecurity measures that are least-trade restrictive, in reality, we have had limited tools to put these principles into practice. To help address this gap, we have reviewed all the different ways that risks have been managed, and classified them according to how they reduce risk. The result was a Risk Reduction Framework that outlines the four ways that risk can be managed, and a comprehensive Menu of Measures that classifies all measure options that are available under the Framework.
In developing the Menu, we have taken a broad view on what a measure is, including both phytosanitary measures that are mandated by National Plant Protection Organisations and commercial measures that can be recognised as reducing risk even if not mandated. The Risk Reduction Framework and Menu of Measures are now informing the development of new tools and methodologies to support the assessment and management of trade-related pest risks.
Look out for more updates about our research
Our team is developing practical tools and technologies to advance phytosanitary risk management. In the next few months, we will share updates about:
- Scenario tools that model pest infestation risks, accounting for pest abundance, host quality and the application of risk reducing measures and inspections
- Symptom grading technologies such as optical scanning and x-ray for non-destructive detection of pests in fresh fruit
- Calculators to quantify pest mortality through storage and transport within the cool chain
- Models to support site-based pest surveillance and fruit inspection as phytosanitary measures
We welcome any feedback about our research, or to hear about your work in this field. And please feel free to share this with your colleagues. You can subscribe to these updates or contact our team at phytoriskscience@csiro.au.