Review of Horticulture Australia Limited export regulation powers

The Australian Government is reviewing horticulture export regulation in Australia.

The Horticulture Marketing and Research and Development Services Act 2001 (HMRDS Act; Commonwealth) and subordinate legislation, enables conditions to be placed on the export of Australian horticultural produce¹. The objective is to ensure that Australian horticultural industries maximise financial returns from export markets.

The conditions that can be placed on exports are potentially broad ranging and may include:

• requiring use of a specific exporting or importing agent;
• specifying quality, colour, shape or size criteria for produce; or,
• requiring participation in an approved export program.

The export licensing arrangements are administered by Horticulture Australia Limited (HAL). In consultation with industry, HAL sets the licence conditions that apply to the export of regulated commodities. Orders are currently in place enabling HAL to set licensing conditions on the export of:

• oranges to all export markets;
• mandarins, tangelos, grapefruit, lemons and limes to the United States;
• apples to all export markets;
• pears to all export markets; and,
• dried grapes to all export markets.

The 2010–2014 statutory funding agreement between the Commonwealth and HAL requires the review of export licensing enabled by the HMRDS Act and subordinate legislation against the principles of national competition policy, which provide that legislation or regulations that restrict competition should be retained only if:

• the benefits to the community as a whole outweigh the costs, and
• the objectives of the legislation/regulation can be achieved only by restricting competition.

The review is being conducted by the Australian Bureau of Agricultural and Resource Economics and Sciences (ABARES), under the supervision of an interdepartmental committee of officials from the Commonwealth Departments of Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry; Foreign Affairs and Trade; Innovation, Industry, Science and Research; and, Finance and Deregulation.

For more information on HAL’s export licensing role please visit the HAL website.

For more information please refer to the terms of reference for the review or contact the secretariat.

View submissions made to the review.

Submissions will also be invited on the draft review report and its recommendations, once completed, in approximately April 2012.

¹This is separate to the powers conferred to the Australian Quarantine and Inspection Service and its agents under the Export Control Act 1982 and subordinate legislation.