Increased inspection of Australian hides and skins 

The Department of Agriculture has been advised that Chinese inspection and quarantine agencies have recently enhanced their monitoring of imported Australian hides and skins. Shipments that are inappropriately processed or are contaminated with foreign material are likely to be destroyed immediately.

The above action follows a number of serious breaches where skins which were accompanied by Australian export certification arrived in China with significant processing flaws and contaminated with prohibited material. The department is currently conducting a full investigation into these shipments.

The department reminds exporters of the need to comply with Chinese import requirements, including the need for hides and skins to be clean and free from contamination. Information regarding Chinese import requirements can be found in the Manual of Importing Country Requirements (MICoR) database (http://www.daff.gov.au/micor). Exporters are also advised that following these recent breaches, the department will be increasing official controls to verify compliance prior to departure.

For further information, please visit www.http://www.daff.gov.au