Five years ago, the National Hardwood Lumber Association (NHLA) entered into an exclusive Memorandum of Understanding with the US Department of Agriculture to provide to the hardwood lumber industry a Certification of Kiln Drying Sawn Hardwood Lumber Program for Exports. Since that time, countries such as Malaysia and Australia that demand kiln drying verification have used the certificate to satisfy their requirements, but overall the industry has found limited use for it. However, that will soon be changing.
Though similar to the certificate of heat treatment that NHLA and 30 other agencies have provided to the pallet industry for international shipments, this programme remains distinctly different. The KD Certificate is used for lumber and can only be issued by NHLA. Its purpose is to certify that lumber has been kiln-dried down to a certain moisture content as indicated by the records of the operating kilns.
And the certificate programme will soon be taking on a new role. The US government has been working with foreign governments to allow lumber that is shipped under it to be accepted as equivalent to the phytosanitary certificate currently issued by the US Department of Agriculture (USDA). It has had some success with countries like Australia and Vietnam and some limited species to other countries, but it was unable to gain general acceptance.
Recently, however, the USDA has changed tack and decided instead to allow the NHLA KD Certificate to be submitted to it and, in turn, it would issue a phyto certificate to the shipper without further inspection or delay. Those companies still wishing to obtain their phytos as usual will be unaffected, but for some companies this should allow them to regain control of their shipping schedule as they will receive a certificate more promptly. Instead of waiting for an Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) inspector to examine the individual load, under the NHLA KD programme a company would instead have a monthly inspection. The actual KD certificate would be issued by NHLA and can be done electronically.
Will this revised programme make sense for everyone? Probably not, but many shippers will see great advantage to using a kiln-dried certificate to expedite their shipping process and in some cases save money. And the benefits of this, of course, could pass on to their customers in Europe and around the world. Further details will be coming over the next few months as the government finalises this initiative and the NHLA will publish updates on www.nhla.com.
For further information contact NHLA’s chief inspector Dana Spessert, email: d.spessert@nhla.com.
