First Step toward the Era of Paperless, Digital Seafood Quarantine!

- Implementation of electronic quarantine certificates for imported Australian fishery products beginning on September 2.

- Expected to strengthen the safety management of imported fishery products by blocking het forgery and falsification of certificates to improve convenience for importers, such as reducing time and costs.

 The National Fishery Products Quality Management Service announced that, as of September 2, it will introduce an electronic quarantine certificate system that will issue digital certificates instead of paper forms during the customs clearing of imported Australian fishery products for the first time.

 This electronic quarantine certificate system is being introduced as a result of the “Exchange of Intent for Establishing an Exchange System for the Korea-Australia Electronic Quarantine Certificate” signed between the National Fishery Products Quality Management Service and the Australian Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry in 2022. The two countries have since completed the development of a mutual transmission and reception system and its test operations.

 The introduction of the electronic quarantine certificate system is expected to increase convenience for citizens. Any party can now conveniently apply for import quarantine by searching and entering the electronic quarantine certificate number sent by the Australian government through the Customs Service's single customs clearance window (Unipass) for quarantine certificates, which previously had to be submitted directly to the National Fishery Products Quality Management Service in its original form upon import.

 The electronic quarantine certification system is also expected to reduce the time taken and costs of confirmation and supplementation, which can take from 5 to 7 days if there is a problem with the certificate format or content when issuing a paper quarantine certificate.

 Moreover, electronic transmission of quarantine certificates between countries is expected to fundamentally eliminate the problems of forgery, alteration, and loss of quarantine certificates, thereby contributing to strengthening the safety management of imported fishery products.