Rules by market
What Australia and New Zealand check first.
Both countries run biosecurity regimes stricter than anywhere else on this site, and both apply them to the container as well as to the goods. Soil, seeds, insects and untreated wood packaging will hold a consignment regardless of how good the product is.
Why they are like this.
Isolation. Both are island economies that lack many pests and diseases established elsewhere, and their agricultural exports depend on staying that way. The rules are not bureaucratic caution, they are the reason those exports are accepted worldwide.
The practical consequence for a buyer is that biosecurity comes before commerce. A perfectly compliant food consignment in a dirty container is a problem, and the problem is the container.
What actually gets held.
Contamination on or in the container, far more often than a problem with the goods. Soil in a corner casting, seeds in the dunnage, insects in a pallet, plant debris on the floor.
Wood packaging without correct treatment marking. Both authorities look closely and an unmarked pallet is a problem in its own right, separate from whatever it is carrying.
Goods without the specific import conditions met. Both countries publish conditions per commodity, and they are specific enough that a producer shipping there for the first time needs to be told rather than assumed to know.
What to do before the first shipment.
Look up the conditions for your exact commodity in the destination's own system, before selecting a supplier. Some products are straightforward and some are effectively closed, and finding out early saves a month.
Brief the Indonesian exporter explicitly about container cleanliness and packaging. An exporter who has shipped only to Asia and the Middle East has genuinely never met this standard, and telling them is not an insult.
Budget time for possible treatment on arrival. Where an inspection finds something, fumigation or cleaning at destination is the outcome, and it costs money and days rather than the consignment.
Questions buyers ask.
Is it worth the trouble for a small market?
The compliance work is front-loaded. A supplier who has cleared once knows the standard and the second shipment is routine, which is an argument for building it into a first order rather than treating either country as an afterthought.
Are Australia and New Zealand the same?
They are similar in philosophy and separate in law, with their own authorities, their own import conditions and their own systems. Preparing for one gets you most of the way and does not clear the other.
What is the single most common failure?
Container cleanliness, by a distance. Not the product, not the paperwork. An exporter who loads into whatever box the line provided, without inspecting it, is the usual cause, and a five-minute check prevents it.
Read next.
Packing for a tropical voyage
Container sweat, mould, insects and crushing. Four failure modes that arrive as claims, and what stops each.
Export documents, by category
Four categories, four different sets of paperwork and almost no overlap. Built from the reference pages, so it cannot fall behind what is published.
Container loading and what actually fits
The cubic capacity figures in circulation disagree with each other. What really decides a load is weight, geometry and the carrier's own specification.
ISPM 15 treatment mark
Solid wood packaging in trade has to be treated and marked. What the mark means, who applies it, and what falls outside the standard.
Phytosanitary certificate
Issued by Badan Karantina Indonesia against the plant health requirements of the destination, on the consignment that was actually inspected.
Fumigation certificate
Some destinations require goods or their packaging to be treated against pests before entry. What the certificate records, and how it differs from ISPM 15.
Australia
Biosecurity comes before everything else. Timber, plant fibre and food all face controls aimed at what might be travelling with the goods.
New Zealand
A small market with the strictest biosecurity on this list. The container matters as much as what is inside it.
How a phytosanitary certificate actually happens
The document following nearly every plant product. Who issues it, when, and why it cannot be arranged afterwards.
Sourcing from Indonesia?
Tell us the product, the quantity and the destination. We come back with what it involves before anyone talks about money.
Sources
- 1Importing goods and biosecurity requirements. Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry, Australia. Checked 3 August 2026.
- 2Importing food and biosecurity requirements. Ministry for Primary Industries, New Zealand. Checked 5 August 2026.
- 3ISPM 15, regulation of wood packaging material in international trade. International Plant Protection Convention (IPPC), FAO. Checked 3 August 2026.