ISPM 15 regulates the solid wood that travels with a glass shipment, never the bottles: pallets, crates, dunnage, spacers and bracing timber must each be treated by an approved method and carry an IPPC mark. For most export lanes the right treatment is heat treatment (HT, a core temperature of at least 56 degrees Celsius held for 30 minutes or longer), because methyl bromide fumigation (MB) is restricted or refused in a number of destinations. A buyer who is told "the packaging must be fumigated" should therefore ask a narrower question: which pieces of wood are in scope, which treatment code the destination accepts, and who checks the mark before the doors close.
National rules change. Treat what follows as orientation and confirm the current requirement of the destination country with a customs broker or the importing authority before an order is placed.
Which wood in a glass shipment is regulated
ISPM 15 is a phytosanitary standard for wood packaging material in international trade. Raw timber can carry insects and larvae from one country's forests into another's, and a cargo shipment moves them efficiently. The standard answers that risk by requiring qualifying wood to be treated and then marked as treated. The product on top of the wood is irrelevant to the rule, so nothing in it attaches to a bottle or a jar.
Scope follows the material. Anything made of raw solid wood that leaves with the consignment is inside it:
- pallets and pallet blocks
- wooden crates, boxes and their frames
- pallet collars and reels
- dunnage placed against the load and spacers between units
- blocking and bracing timber that keeps a stack from shifting
The point that gets lost between buyer, supplier and forwarder is the last two lines of that list. Bottles on a correctly marked pallet, held against the container wall by unmarked battens, make a non-compliant shipment, and the battens are what the inspector will stop. We recommend writing the requirement into the order in those words: every piece of solid wood that travels, not just the pallet.
What is exempt
Packaging made wholly of processed wood is generally outside the requirement. Plywood, particle board, oriented strand board and veneer are manufactured with glue, heat, pressure or some combination, and that process has already destroyed the pest risk. This is the reason plywood is so widely used for bulkheads and crate panels. Raw wood under a small thickness threshold is generally outside the solid wood rule as well.
Exemption belongs to the material, not to the object or the supplier. A crate with plywood panels on a solid timber frame is a mixed object: the panels need nothing, the frame needs treatment and its own mark. A pallet with a processed deck on solid wood blocks follows the same logic. Both can sit in one container from one supplier, and both statements hold at once.
Heat treatment, methyl bromide and dielectric heating compared
The standard approves three treatments. Buyers of glass packaging meet two of them regularly, HT and MB; dielectric heating (DH) is the less common third.
| Treatment | Process | Code on the mark | Acceptance | What to verify |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Heat treatment | Dry process in a chamber or kiln; the wood core reaches a minimum of 56 degrees Celsius for at least 30 minutes | HT | Widely accepted; the usual basis for an export pallet pool | The mark is readable on the pallets that actually shipped and the provider is an approved facility |
| Methyl bromide fumigation | Gas exposure at a set concentration for a set period, defined as a concentration-time schedule | MB | Restricted in a number of markets and refused by some; availability varies by destination | The destination accepts an MB mark at all, checked before pallets are purchased |
| Dielectric heating | The wood reaches 60 degrees Celsius for one continuous minute | DH | Accepted where the standard applies and an approved facility offers it; uncommon in ordinary export pools | An approved provider carried it out, since the mark does not show how the facility works |
HT and MB differ commercially more than technically. Heat-treated wood comes out dry, a little lighter and free of chemical residue. Methyl bromide is effective, but it depletes ozone and is controlled under the Montreal Protocol, so its use for phytosanitary treatment has been narrowed step by step. Several destinations now turn away MB-treated packaging or make clearance noticeably harder.
That produces the most frequent treatment error we see on glass exports: the fumigation really happened, the stamp is authentic, and the importing country still rejects that code. Three working rules prevent it.
- Work backwards from the destination when choosing the treatment, and settle it before pallets are bought, not once they are under a load.
- Keep the provider's treatment record. The stamp shows the wood was treated; the record shows which schedule was applied.
- Apply the chosen treatment to the whole shipment. Compliant pallets with untreated dunnage are a non-compliant load carrying a compliant stamp.
A buyer shipping to several markets is better served by the treatment accepted most widely than by whichever is cheapest on a single lane. A pool built on HT reaches more countries without a specification change than a fumigated one. This is a specification decision, and it belongs in the packing document the supplier works to.
What the IPPC mark must show and where it must sit
The mark is what lets a port inspector accept wood without testing it, so the scheme depends on it. A valid mark has four elements:
- the IPPC symbol, a stylised wheat sheaf
- the two-letter ISO code of the country where treatment took place
- a unique code for the producer or treatment provider approved in that country
- the treatment abbreviation: HT, MB or DH
Some marks add a code showing the wood was debarked. Only an approved facility may apply the mark. A pallet owner cannot stamp its own stock, and the mark is lawful only because of that approval.
Placement carries equal weight. The mark must be legible and permanent (a sticker that can peel off does not qualify), and it must be on a face the inspector can read without taking the load apart. Each regulated piece needs its own, so a marked pallet does not cover loose battens stacked on it.
Two faults turn up repeatedly. One is a stamp that was clear at the treatment facility and unreadable at the port because the timber was wet, the face was dusty or the ink was thin. The other is a real stamp on the wrong component: the crate frame is marked and the pallet beneath is bare, or the other way round.
Ask for the mark to appear in the loading photographs, and check the four elements instead of glancing at the outline of a stamp. A picture taken while the container is being stuffed is inexpensive, and it turns a supplier's assurance into a record of what left.
Dunnage, bracing timber, crates and reused pallets
Most disputes over wood on a glass shipment come down to what a given piece actually is: regulated timber, or exempt board. The components that cause the trouble are the ones nobody thinks of as packaging.
Dunnage and blocking timber
Buyers commonly assume the pallet's compliance extends to the timber that restrains the load. It does not. Bracing wood is wood packaging material in its own right, and each piece needs treatment and a mark. The difficulty is practical: dunnage tends to be sawn on the dock to fill a particular gap, often from locally sourced offcuts, and offcuts are the timber least likely to bear a stamp.
How a load is braced therefore has a compliance side as well as an engineering one. A plywood bulkhead is processed wood and needs no mark. A timber frame or a row of battens is raw wood and needs both treatment and marking. Nails, straps, airbags and steel banding are not wood, so they sit outside the scheme entirely, which lets a bracing plan combine regulated and unregulated materials. If the cargo calls for a heavy physical stop, fix the wood specification before the packing plan is drafted so that compliant timber is ordered, not pulled from whatever lies in the yard. The methods themselves are covered in our guide to loading glass bottles into a container.
The rule applies to the wood inside the container at the moment it is sealed, not to the wood as it sat in the store. A compliant batten trimmed on the dock can lose the very face that carried its stamp. Keeping a marked face on every cut piece is basic housekeeping.
Crates, frames, collars and reels
These are handled like any other solid wood packaging, with the mark on a surface readable without dismantling. The recurring misunderstanding is using plywood panels as a reason to leave the timber frame untreated. A fully enclosed wooden crate may also fall under an additional destination rule, which is worth asking the broker about.
Reused and repaired packaging
Wood has to stay compliant throughout its service life. When a repair or re-manufacture adds solid wood, the new material must be treated and marked by the facility that treated it, alongside the original mark where that is still valid and readable. A pool pallet with a clear, attributable stamp travels as well as a new one. A stamp hidden under paint, a cover board or a repair plate counts as no stamp.
What happens at the port when a mark is missing or unreadable
Non-compliant wood does not end in a paperwork charge. The container is detained at the port of entry for phytosanitary inspection, and the authority has a short list of options: treat the wood, strip it out and replace it, or send the shipment back. Each carries its own cost and timetable, and by then the buyer controls none of them.
The typical case is unremarkable. Marked pallets arrive with unmarked battens wedged against the container wall, or a pallet's authentic stamp was painted over when a repair raised the deck. The inspector finds a single offending piece and must treat the whole consignment as non-compliant, because the scheme draws no line between timber that harbours a pest and timber that simply lacks a stamp. The question then becomes whether the wood can be treated where it stands or at a facility nearby, or whether the goods must be lifted off and rebuilt on compliant wood.
When the pallet is at fault, the pallet is the least of the expense. The bill is the repalletizing work, the labour, the bottles broken while the load is rebuilt, and a hold that runs far longer than a routine inspection.
Three habits remove nearly all of this exposure:
- A gate check at the plant. Wood is inspected before loading, and any batch with an unreadable stamp is set aside.
- A photo requirement. The stamp on the pallets and on each piece of travelling dunnage is shown in the loading photographs, so there is evidence if a dispute follows.
- Responsibility in writing. Pallets and container are often arranged by different companies, and a non-compliance finding is when each learns it believed the other had the matter in hand.
The treated-versus-untreated price of a pallet is a poor basis for arguing about compliance. A fair comparison is made per shipment and counts five things: the treatment and marking charge plus record keeping; any change in pallet or crate specification, with the volume and weight that follow; the exposure if an inspection finds a bad piece; the detention itself, with terminal storage, demurrage and late deliveries to the buyer's own customers; and the internal cost of repalletizing, breakage and claim handling. The detention usually outweighs the rest, and none of it shows on a treatment invoice.
How compliant wood affects the container plan
Wood takes up room, so the compliance choice feeds into loading. Each pallet deck uses part of the height of every tier, and a top cap or wooden crate lid uses more. The limit that matters is the door opening, not the internal height, since the load has to pass through the doors. Moving from a thin moulded pallet to a thick solid wood one can cost a tier on a tall load. Replacing a plywood bulkhead with a timber frame can take a few centimetres of floor length the plan was relying on.
The treatment itself barely changes the sums, and any effect is usually helpful. HT dries the wood, leaving the pallet marginally lighter than a wet one and less prone to weakening on a humid voyage; MB leaves the wood unchanged. Nominal dimensions stay the same under either, so pallet format and condition drive the plan. The volume arithmetic is worked through in our CBM and container capacity guide, and stacking layouts are signed off through pallet pattern approval.
Sequence is what we check most closely on a project: compliant wood specification first, then the packing plan, then the container. Plants that reverse it find out at the dock that the compliant pallet they purchased does not fit the plan already drawn.
Weight is the other constraint. Solid wood weighs more than a moulded or plastic pallet of equal footprint, and on a dense cargo of filled glass the permitted payload is a real limit. That is no argument for non-compliant wood. It means gross weight should be checked against payload before the pallet format is frozen.
This page deals only with what must be true of the wood. Feeding empty pallets into a stacking station is a production matter, described under pallet dispensers, and should not be mixed up with the customs question here.
Destination rules and the documents behind the mark
National authorities apply the scheme, and they do not apply it identically. Some treat a compliant mark as sufficient by itself, which is how the scheme was designed, and ask for no phytosanitary certificate for the packaging. Others add conditions of their own on the treatment method, debarking, wood species, accompanying paperwork or the inspection regime at entry. Methyl bromide is the clearest case, since an international agreement restricts it and acceptance differs sharply from market to market.
It helps to keep three pieces of evidence apart:
- The mark on the wood. The primary evidence, and it moves with the goods.
- The treatment record. Issued by the approved facility in support of the mark and kept by the supplier, not the buyer.
- A phytosanitary certificate. Issued by the exporting country's plant protection authority. Some destinations request it on top of the mark, especially when other regulated plant material accompanies the packaging.
The mark is a claim about individual pieces of wood, not a certificate for the shipment, so compliance is judged on what physically travels and not on the papers describing it. Which documents a given lane needs is a question for a customs broker before ordering, and the answer should go into the purchase order.
Who carries the obligation under each trade term
A trade term does not decide whether the wood must comply. It decides which party is contractually positioned to make it comply, and most confusion starts there.
| Term | Position on wood packaging | What the buyer should do |
|---|---|---|
| EXW | Goods are collected at the supplier's premises; pallet supply, treatment and loading are on the buyer's account from the outset | Specify the compliance standard instead of assuming the supplier has one |
| FOB | The seller delivers on board and risk passes at the ship, so origin loading is arranged on the seller's side | Require verification before loading; the buyer first sees the wood at destination, when an unmarked batten can no longer be fixed cheaply |
| CIF and CIP | The seller arranges and pays carriage to a named place; the term allocates cost, not fault | Check what the named place covers, because carriage to the destination port excludes the consequences of refused wood |
| DDP | Delivery can extend to the buyer's premises, bringing destination-side treatment or replacement inside what was bought | Name the party carrying that obligation explicitly |
No term removes the buyer's own duty to know what the destination requires and to state it in writing before ordering. Wood compliance is one part of the wider order file described under export support for glass bottle orders.
How to brief the wood packaging requirement
Whatever the trade term, put three items in the order in writing:
- The treatment required for the destination, named by its code and not loosely as "fumigation".
- The evidence to accompany the shipment and the point of verification: in practice, the mark on the pallets and on each piece of travelling dunnage, visible in the loading photographs.
- Who pays for treatment, replacement or delay if the wood is refused on arrival.
The third item is the one most often missing, and it settles who bears the loss when an inspection goes badly. These lines sit naturally in the packing specification for the order.
When we review wood compliance for a project, we need three inputs. The destination: country, and port or door address, because treatment, documents and any extra national rule all depend on it. The container type and loading method: palletized, floor loaded or mixed, and whether dunnage or blocking timber forms part of the bracing. The wood specification: pallet format and material, which components are solid and which are processed, and the treatment the supplier plans to use.
From those we can set out the treatment accepted on that lane and the marking that follows, sort the pieces in scope from those outside it, list the photographs and evidence to request before departure, flag the documents to confirm with a broker, and propose a written split of responsibility among supplier, buyer and forwarder. All of it remains planning guidance subject to the destination's current regulation.
Questions buyers ask about ISPM 15 wood packaging
Do glass bottles themselves fall under ISPM 15?
No. Glass poses none of the pest risk the scheme exists to control, so only the solid wood travelling with it is regulated. The check still has to reach every such piece in the container, since a handful of bare battens added at the dock is enough to fail an otherwise sound load.
Should I specify heat treatment or methyl bromide?
HT is the safer default for anyone shipping to more than one market: broad acceptance, no residue, dry timber. MB remains an approved treatment, but its Montreal Protocol status means some destinations refuse it. Confirm against the destination before buying pallets, because an authentic mark with the wrong treatment code still gets a container refused.
Which components need no treatment or mark?
Those made entirely of processed wood (plywood, particle board, oriented strand board, veneer), together with raw wood below a small thickness threshold. A missing mark on such material is not a defect. Watch for mixed constructions, where exempt panels or decks are fixed to solid frames or blocks that remain regulated.
Can one marked pallet cover the dunnage loaded with it?
No. Every piece of solid bracing timber needs its own treatment and stamp. A plywood bulkhead is the exception because it is processed wood. Order the bracing wood together with the packing plan and keep the stamped face intact after any cutting.
What can the authority do with a non-compliant container?
Hold it for inspection, then require treatment, removal and replacement of the wood, or re-export. A single unmarked piece is sufficient to detain the full consignment, which is why the inspection belongs at the plant gate and not at the port.