New import requirements for wood packaging

A Forestry Commission product story

Edited by the Buildingtalk editorial team Mar 7, 2005

Controls on wood packaging for imports from across the world have been tightened to reduce the threat from exotic pests.

Controls on wood packaging for imports from across the world have been tightened to reduce the threat from exotic pests.

The new measures have been designed to practically eliminate the risk for most quarantine pests such as Asian longhorn beetle and pine wood nematode.

They also aim to significantly reduce the risk from a number of other pests that may be associated with packaging made from coniferous and non-coniferous raw wood.

The controls came into force on 1 March, and are being enforced by the EC and its member states on wood packaging material used for the import of commodities of all kinds from all countries except Switzerland.

In particular, the relevant provisions of the Plant Health Directive 200/89/EC on wood packaging material were aligned with provisions of the FAO International Standard for Phytosanitary Measures No.

15 (SPM15) on Guidelines for regulating wood packaging material in international trade.

ISPM15 was adopted in 2002 and an increasing number of countries are putting in place import requirements in line with this phytosanitary standard.

Specific requirements of the European Community From the 1st March 2005 wood packaging material (such as packing cases, cases, boxes, crates, drums and similar packings, palllets, box pallets and other load boards, pallet collars) can only be imported into the European Community if they meet the following requirements.

Dunnage material is also regulated.

The wood packaging material shall: be made from debarked round wood (this requirement shall only apply from 1st March 2006), and be subject to one of the approved measures as specified in ISPM15, notably; heat treatment of the wood packaging material that achieves a minimum wood core temperature of 56 degrees Celsius for a minimum of 30 minutes, or the wood packaging material should be fumigated with Methyl bromide in alignment with requirements described in Annex 1 of ISPM15 and display a mark with; the two-letter ISO country code, a code identifying the producer and the code identifying the approved measure applied to the wood packaging material as specified in Annex II of ISPM15.

More details are available from the Forestry Commissions website at www.forestry.gov.uk/planthealth.