The brown marmorated stink bug (BMSB) season 2021-2022 started on 1st September. BIMCO provides the measures for this season introduced by countries for ships arriving from targeted “BMSB” countries.
The new season for BMSBs bugs starts in September and with that, a whole new string of measures has been implemented jointly by New Zealand and Australia to stem the tide of these bugs coming into their countries. For the 2021/2022 season, seasonal measures will apply to :
- Targeted goods manufactured in, or shipped from target risk countries;
- Vessels that berth at, load or tranship from target risk countries;
- Goods that have been shipped between 1 September 2021 and 30 April 2022.
Because of the rapid spread of these BMSBs in Europe and North America, the list of countries targeted for having BMSBs has now grown to 38 countries for New Zealand and Australia. There are also countries that have been identified as emerging risk countries for this season.
New Zealand’s MPI has released a revised version of their “Import Health Standard for Vehicles, Machinery and Parts” that came into effect 11 August 2021. The ” Import Health Standard for Sea Containers from all countries” which entered into force on 19 July 2019 is still valid.
These revised standards impose various requirements for certain goods as well as specific ones for sea containers coming from Italy and used vehicles from Japan.
Members operating ships heading for Australia, New Zealand and Chile should ensure that the above BMSB seasonal measures are complied with in order to avoid ships being turned away from their territorial waters, notwithstanding that the responsibility of ensuring the cargo is ¨’clean’ lies with the importers
said BIMCO.
