Duties and fees relief package

The Duties and Fees Relief Package is helping to reduce the cost of doing business for Victoria’s primary producers affected by drought. Overall, this package has delivered more than $10 million in relief to Victorian Producers and included measures to waive a range of fees and duties.

Agriculture Victoria worked with food safety regulators Dairy Food Safety Victoria and PrimeSafe (now the consolidated regulator Safe Food Victoria as of 1 July 2026), the State Revenue Office and the livestock advisory committees to deliver this support.

2026–27 package delivery

During 2026–27, the package includes the waiver of beekeeper registration fees delivering relief to Victorian honey producers.

Beekeeper registrations

  • Beekeepers will receive fee relief through a pause on the cost of their beekeeper registration, which normally covers two years.
  • This applies to any beekeeper registration payable between 1 October 2025 to 30 September 2027 (24 months).

2025–26 package delivery

During 2025–26, the Duties and Fees Relief Package included the following measures:

Livestock duties and fees

  • The waiver of livestock duties for the sale of cattle, sheep, goats and pigs for any producer who sold livestock in Victoria and who would have normally been required to pay duties.
  • The waiver of the standard order processing fee for NLIS tags.
  • The fee waiver for livestock duties will conclude 30 September 2026 with livestock fees and duties resuming on 1 October 2026. For more information, visit the State Revenue Office.

Plant biosecurity service fees

  • The waiver of fees for nursery and horticulture producers for various plant biosecurity services. This fee waiver concluded on 30 June 2026.

Food safety registration fees – horticulture and regulated cropping

  • The waiver of food safety registration fees for producers in the 12 local government areas deemed as experiencing the worst drought conditions. This fee waiver concluded on 30 June 2026.
  • Separate from the drought support package, food safety registration fees for all producers in Victoria will continue to be charged at a 50% reduction as part of the rollout of this program. In addition, no audit fees will be charged until February 2027.

Food safety farmer licence fees – dairy

  • Dairy farmers received a discount on their licence fees, which was reflected in their milk payments from dairy manufacturers. This scheme concluded on 30 June 2026.

Food safety registration fees – meat

  • PrimeSafe, Victoria's former meat safety regulator prior to the establishment of Safe Food Victoria, provided drought-affected primary producers who have a PrimeSafe Licence and a Property Identification Code (PIC) with a relief payment based on their registration fees. Licence holders were contacted by PrimeSafe and invited to submit a short Expression of Interest to receive the payment.
  • This scheme concluded on 30 June 2026.

For a full list of Agriculture Victoria’s service fees visit Fees and penalties

For more information about livestock duty payments to the State Revenue Office visit https://www.sro.vic.gov.au/livestock-duty

Page last updated: 24 Sep 2026