Where would we be without the humble wooden pallet?!
This page previously drew attention to the fact that from 1st January 2021, it became a legal requirement for all wooden packaging material (WPM), for exports and imports between GB and the EU to be compliant with a treatment and marked as specified in the International Standard for Phytosanitary measures No 15 (ISPM15). This also included dunnage for securing purposes.
UK companies who already traded with these countries outside of the EU would already have been familiar with this, and would most probably already have been compliant.
A temporary easement up until the 31st July 2021 was granted in relation to imports into GB apart from imports from Portugal. And unofficially, the EU didn’t start pressing for their imports to fully comply until mid-May.
However, the 31st July is almost upon us, and customers need to be aware that wooden packaging may be subject to inspection on entry to GB, the risk being that goods may even be confiscated (as has been the case in the EU) should such wooden packaging nit bee compliant.
The British International Freight Association (BIFA) produced an article on the subject in their October 2020 BIFAlink magazine in a little more detail, and this can be read here at page 15.
The TIMCON website is a useful source to find suppliers who can produce compliant packaging.