“We are starting to see the issues with biosecurity starting to roll through the system,” Mr Hack said. “Obviously the delays are a pain but so are the actual mounting costs.”
Paul Zalai, director of the Freight & Trade Alliance, an industry group that represents importers, said the labour-intensive processes of biosecurity officers physically assessing documents and selecting consignments for inspection was exacerbating delays, adding to storage costs and container detention fees paid to shipping lines.
“Biosecurity delays is one of many causes of container detention fees that are conservatively costing importers $500 million per annum,” Mr Zalai said.
“This is on top of surcharges, terminal access charges and record high freight rates that are rapidly escalating supply chain costs and adding to inflationary pressures.”
The department of agriculture confirmed there are inspection delays of up to four weeks at Port Botany and the Port of Melbourne, and attributed them to the ongoing effects of COVID-19 and “accompanying economic, trade and workforce shortages”.
“At the same time, Australia is seeing higher volumes of incoming cargo and global spread of significant pests and diseases such as Japanese encephalitis virus, foot-and-mouth disease, lumpy skin disease, khapra beetle, and the varroa destructor mite,” a department spokesman said.
Some 156 additional biosecurity officers have been hired over the past 12 months but attracting and retaining staff in a tight labour market, particularly in Sydney and Melbourne, remained challenging, the spokesman said.
The government has also started a new biosecurity training centre at Charles Sturt University in Wagga Wagga, NSW. It aims to train about 300 people a year, with 21 students starting on July 4.
While importers support tough biosecurity checks, Mr Zalai argued the current system was “broken and hopelessly outdated” and that more technology such as X-rays, sensors and cameras should be used to help examine cargo.
“Just this week we were advised that every single flight coming back into the country from Indonesia is to be boarded by a biosecurity officer and a message will be played that is dedicated to the issues around foot and mouth disease in Indonesia,” he said.
The department of agriculture said it was working on automation processes including robotic processing, computer vision, machine learning and artificial intelligence.
It has been running trials with several companies, including Kmart, John Deere and Amazon, to test whether their systems and supply chain controls could be used to manage biosecurity risk.
It expects to make the new arrangements available to the broader industry in the final few months of the year. It is also encouraging companies to book and change inspections online and is doing some inspections late on weekdays and weekends where possible.
