If you export physical goods on wooden packaging, you have met ISPM 15 whether or not you know its name. It is the international phytosanitary standard governing wood packaging material, and it exists because untreated wood moves insects between continents very efficiently.
What ISPM 15 requires
Any solid wood packaging material thicker than 6mm crossing most international borders must be treated — heat treatment or fumigation — and marked with the familiar stamp: the IPPC wheat symbol, a country code, a facility registration number and the treatment code.
- HT — heat treated to a core temperature of 56°C for at least 30 minutes.
- DH — dielectric heating.
- MB — methyl bromide fumigation, now phased out or restricted in many jurisdictions.
- The mark must be on at least two opposite sides, legible and permanent.
Where it goes wrong in practice
The standard is clear. Compliance in the real world is messier, and the failure modes are consistent.
- A compliant crate repaired with a non-compliant board. The repair voids the mark.
- Dunnage inside a container that nobody treated, because it was 'just blocking'.
- A pallet re-stacked from mixed sources, half marked, half not.
- Marks that have weathered to illegibility.
- Plywood and OSB, which are exempt as engineered wood, stacked with solid-wood battens that are not.
The consequence of getting it wrong is not a fine so much as a delay: the container is held, and in some jurisdictions the entire consignment is re-exported at your cost. Nobody budgets for that.
The corrugated alternative
Corrugated and paper-based packaging is outside ISPM 15 entirely. It is a processed material, not solid wood, and it carries no phytosanitary obligation, no treatment requirement and no mark to go missing.
| Factor | Wooden crate | Triple-wall corrugated |
|---|---|---|
| ISPM 15 obligation | Yes | None |
| Weight, 48×40×36 equivalent | 70 – 95 lb | ~18.5 lb |
| Freight cost impact | Significant | Minimal |
| Repairable in the field | Yes | Yes, at a bench |
| Tolerates standing water | Yes | No |
| Disposal at destination | Often a cost | Standard OCC stream |
| Protruding fasteners | Common | None |
Where corrugated genuinely does not work
We are not going to pretend this is a universal swap.
- Loads above roughly 2,400 lb static, where you want steel or composite rather than either option.
- Anything exposed to standing water or prolonged humidity without a liner.
- Protruding sharp edges that will cut through a liner and then the board.
- Deck cargo and anything stored outdoors at a port for an extended period.
- Lanes where the destination has no corrugated recycling and a crate would be reused locally.
The hybrid that often wins
A corrugated bulk container on a treated pallet. The pallet still needs its mark, but it is one small, simple, well-documented component rather than a whole crate. Most of the weight and most of the compliance surface disappears.
Reducing your ISPM 15 exposure to a single marked pallet is usually easier than getting a whole crate programme consistently right.
A practical first step
Audit one outbound export load. List every piece of solid wood in it, including dunnage and blocking, and check each for a legible mark. In our experience the result is uncomfortable about half the time, and the blocking is almost always the problem.
Our pieces are written by the people who do the work rather than by a content agency, which is why they contain more numbers and fewer adjectives than is fashionable. If a figure here does not match your experience, we would genuinely like to hear about it — two of our published coefficients have changed that way.