The Biosecurity Authority of Fiji has now gone live with its phytosanitary certificates, meaning effective from July, BAF will be creating and issuing Fijian phytosanitary certificates using the Generic ePhyto National System (GeNS) for commercial consignments exported from Fiji.
BAF acting chief executive officer Surend Pratap said GeNS provided a secured platform that would enable National Plant Protection Organisations (or NPPOs) of two trading countries to directly exchange phytosanitary certificates without the need to print the certificates on paper.
He said implementing electronic certification of plants and plant products export was a significant step from BAF towards improving trade efficiency by reducing the time and cost of conveying phytosanitary certificates to countries where Fiji exports agricultural commodities.
BAF launched the ePhyto system on July 1 at the Novotel Nadi at an event attended by local exporters and New Zealand and Australian counterparts joining via the Zoom platform.
A statement from BAF said additionally, the system would also reduce issues of non-compliance at Fiji’s borders which arise as a result of misplacement and/or late submission of original phytosanitary certificates.
It added that the new system would synchronise BAF with international best practices creating homogenous conditions for trade.
This launch now puts Fiji among the first island countries in the region to go live with its ePhyto certifications.
Meanwhile according to BAF, while this process was previously limited to only hard copy issuance, the new system will enable BAF to issue electronic phytosanitary certificates (ePhyto) directly to countries that are connected to the International Plant Protection Convention (IPPC) cloud based hub.
It was also mentioned that BAF would implement the use of ePhyto created via the GeNS system with New Zealand Ministry of Primary Industries (NZMPI) for starters and move to other trading countries in months to come.
In the meantime to ensure smooth transition to the electronic platform, BAF will in parallel print and issue the paper copy of the new Fijian phytosanitary certificates for all commercial consignments until such time that BAF and its trading partners are content to go fully paperless.
The GeNS is a centralised web-based system to create, send and receive ePhyto between the National Plant Protection Organisations (NPPO) of two trading countries via the IPPC hub.
Linking to the hub means BAF will also start to receive ePhyto from countries that are connected with BAF on the hub for clearance of all commercial import consignments.
