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Port Pallets

Guide

ISPM 15 and wood packaging material

The international phytosanitary standard that governs solid wood packaging in international trade — what it covers, what it does not, and why the answer always depends on the destination.

Published 2026-09-10 · Last reviewed 2026-09-10 · Next review due 2026-12-10

This guide is general information written for people working around UK ports. It is not legal or customs advice, and it does not certify that any consignment complies with anything. Requirements change and depend on the specific goods, materials, route and dates involved. Always check the official sources linked below, and take professional advice where the consequences of getting it wrong are significant.

What ISPM 15 actually is

ISPM 15 is an International Standard for Phytosanitary Measures published under the International Plant Protection Convention (IPPC). Its purpose is narrow and specific: to reduce the risk of timber pests being moved between countries inside wooden packaging. It is not a quality standard, not a strength standard and not a customs rule. It exists because raw wood can carry insects and fungi that damage forests in a country where they do not naturally occur.

Because it is an international standard rather than a law in itself, ISPM 15 takes legal effect through each country's own plant health legislation. That is the single most important thing to understand about it: what you must do is set by the country you are shipping to, informed by ISPM 15 — not by ISPM 15 directly.

What it covers

The standard applies to wood packaging material made of coniferous or non-coniferous raw wood. In practice that means the kinds of items that turn up constantly around ports:

  • Pallets made from sawn timber
  • Timber packing cases and crates
  • Skids, bearers and load-bearing timber
  • Dunnage used to block, brace and separate cargo
  • Timber drums, spools and cable reels

What it does not cover

Materials that have been processed in ways that destroy pest risk generally fall outside the scope. Manufactured wood-based board products such as plywood, particleboard and oriented strand board are typically treated as outside scope because of the manufacturing process they undergo. Plastic pallets are not wood and are outside scope entirely. Very thin wood below a defined thickness is also treated differently.

This does not make those materials 'exempt' in general

Being outside the scope of a phytosanitary standard is not the same as being outside the scope of every other rule. Packaging waste rules, product rules, customs rules and the destination country's own requirements can all still apply. Check the movement, not just the material.

The mark

Compliant wood packaging carries a mark that identifies the country, the registered producer or treatment provider, and the treatment applied. The mark is applied under a national registration scheme administered by the relevant plant health authority — it is not something a supplier can apply at will. In Great Britain the relevant authority arrangements and registration requirements are set out on GOV.UK.

Port Pallets makes no treatment or registration claim

This website does not claim treatment registration, does not claim authority to apply any phytosanitary mark, and does not display marks on any imagery. If your consignment needs marked wood packaging, that requirement must be discussed and evidenced specifically — never assumed from a web page.

Containerisation does not remove the requirement

A recurring misunderstanding around container terminals is that because cargo is sealed inside a box, the wood inside it somehow falls outside plant health rules. It does not. The requirement attaches to the wood packaging material itself and to the movement, not to whether it happens to be inside a container. Dunnage used to secure cargo inside a container is wood packaging material too, and is frequently the thing that causes problems at inspection precisely because nobody thought of it as packaging.

Repairs and remanufacture

Repairing a marked pallet raises real questions. Replacing components can mean the existing mark no longer accurately describes the pallet, depending on how much was replaced and whether the replacement material was itself treated. Rules on repaired and remanufactured wood packaging are specific and are one of the most common sources of rejected consignments. If you are shipping repaired pallets internationally, treat that as something requiring checking rather than something to assume.

What to do with a specific shipment

  • Identify the destination country precisely, including whether the route passes through other territories.
  • Identify every piece of wood in the load, including dunnage, bearers and internal bracing.
  • Check the destination's current requirements through the official sources below or via your freight forwarder.
  • Where marked wood packaging is needed, obtain it from a provider who can evidence their registration.
  • Keep records — inspection questions are far easier to answer with documentation in hand.

Sources

Each link was checked on the date shown. Where a site blocked our automated check we say so rather than implying a clean result.