Australia Revises Bark Rules for Solid Wood Packaging
By Dr. Ed Brindley
Date Posted: 7/6/2010
Known for strict rules regarding bark on solid wood packaging material, Australia has revised its bark free requirements to allow for the new bark requirements and exemptions in ISPM-15, the international standard for solid wood packaging material developed under the International Plant Protection Convention.
Starting July 1, 2010, Australia will accept solid wood packaging material that is treated and marked as ISPM-15 compliant and meets the bark tolerance requirements defined in the revised ISPM-15 standard. This requires that solid wood packaging material be debarked, but allows a tolerance for small pieces of bark that have not been completely removed during milling.
This tolerance for bark will also apply to solid wood packaging treated with other treatments approved by the Australian government. The ‘bark free’ declaration is still required but the ISPM-15 tolerance limits apply. Any wood packaging and dunnage exceeding the ISPM-15 bark tolerance limit will be subject to treatment, export or destruction at the importer’s expense.
The ISPM-15 standard allows for any number of visually separate and clearly distinct small pieces of bark to 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 (length × width) of an individual piece of bark less than 50 square cm. Any wood packaging and dunnage exceeding the bark tolerance in the ISPM 15 standard will be subject to treatment, export or destruction.
Australia has kept is bark free requirement for timber imported as commodity (any timber other than solid wood packaging material). This means that only ingrown bark around knots and bark pockets between rings of annual growth are acceptable for commodity timber.
For more information, contact the Timber National Co-ordination Centre, AQIS Melbourne by phone: 03 8318 6782.
