Free ISPM 15 Consulting

Free ISPM 15 Consulting2021-11-10T12:16:07+00:00

General ISPM 15 and ALSC Enforcement Clarification

  • Wood packaging produced within the United States for shipment internationally is subject to international and domestic rules and regulations.
  • The most commonly discussed rules include heat treatment or fumigation of lumber used in wood packaging.
  • The material also needs to be debarked and marked with a certification stamp.
  • Producers of wood packaging material that wish to stamp their own wood packaging must be audited monthly by an independent inspection agency such as Timber Products Inspection.

General Bark Restriction Information

All IPPC HT stamped wood packaging and dunnage leaving Timber Creek is debarked and heat treated to the meet the revised ISPM 15 standards.

ISPM 15-2009 Revision

  • ISPM 15, revised in June 2009 has been updated to include a bark restriction not previously in the standard.
  • All ISPM 15 countries may: reject, fumigate (with Methyl Bromide), or destroy your exported packaging and/or products at your cost! All wood packaging MUST meet or exceed the new debarked standard.
  • The definitions for “bark free” and “debarked” have been updated to match ISPM 15 and AQIS definitions (see below). AQIS and Australia no longer enforce their Bark Free standard, opting to conform with the rest of the world’s debarked standard.

US to Canada Shipments

  • Timber Creek recommends that any international shipment be debarking or IPPC stamped, including trans-border shipments in the US and Canada.

Australia Shipments

Bark Restriction Terminology

  • Debarked means “visually separate and clearly distinct small pieces of bark may remain” within the specifications set forth by a 2009 revision to ISPM 15 Annex.
  • Bark Free means “Zero tolerance for bark

The official definition of debarked wood:

Irrespective of the type of treatment applied, wood packaging material must be made of debarked wood. For this standard, any number of visually separate and clearly distinct small pieces of bark may remain if they are: – less than 3 cm in width (regardless of the length) or – greater than 3 cm in width, with the total surface area of an individual piece of bark less than 50 square cm.” [per the Revised ISPM 15 Annex 1]

The official definition of bark free wood:

This definition was created by Australia, however, effective July 1, 2010, Australia no longer requires this level of bark restriction. Instead, Australia has adopted the international standard set forth by the 2009 revision of ISMP 15 Annex 1

“…ZERO tolerance for bark on timber packaging and dunnage. Bark is the external natural growth layer covering trees and branches…bark around knots, bark pockets between rings of annual growth, and inclusions in the vascular cambium are difficult to remove. However these have the potential to harbor quarantine risk materials such as fungal spores, fungal decays and insects.” [per Australia’s AQIS Website]

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