Australia's government has not allocated money to part-fund Australian Quarantine Inspection Service (AQIS) fees in its budget for 2010-11.
Currently the government pays 40 per cent of AQIS inspection fees, which cost around A$268 (US$291) an hour.
Australian Horticulture Exporters Association spokesperson David Minnis said it was unfair for the government to expect exporters to foot the bill for a government administered system that is “innately inefficient”.
“Most AQIS inspectors don’t have portable computers so they can’t sign off the export permits that we’re seeking there and then,” he told Fruitnet.com. “They have to go back to their office and sign off on the permits there.
“The inspectors may come out to inspect the product and then it might be five hours before they’ve gone back to the office to sign off on the permit,” he said. “That means we have to pay extra for a hand-written document to get our product onto whichever plane we need to get it on to meet export orders.”
He added that the government was withdrawing funding at a time when the fresh produce export industry was suffering the effects of a high Australian dollar and poor crops in many of its major export categories.
“It’s the last thing we need at the moment with all of the other cost we are facing.”
He told Australian newspaper the Weekly Times it was important for the country to maintain its export industry.
“If an industry doesn’t have an export focus, in years of underproduction, it faces an import threat – It’s important to have an export and domestic market,” he said.
