China’s ban on imports using wood-based packaging which has not undergone specific treatment is the first step towards a “new global reality” for the product, the wood packaging industry has been warned.
Delegates at the Timber Packaging and Pallet Confederation‘s (TIMCON) ‘Protect Your Market’ conference, held on September 26, were told that China’s emergency ban, effective from October 1, must be seen as part of an increasing challenge to the industry.
To be acceptable to Chinese authorities, packaging must be heat treated (to 56C for 30mins) or fumigated with methyl bromide to kill any forestry pests or diseases.
The Forestry Commission, working with the Department of Trade and Industry, has contacted exporters to China about the new measures needed.
Exporters are being assessed by the Commission as part of its new Wood Marking (Phytosanitary) Scheme and are being issued with certificates to prove their products have been correctly treated.
Ian Brownlee, the Commission’s plant health operations manager, said: “This has been introduced to tackle the very real risk which untreated wood packaging presents in the form of a viable pathway for quarantine forestry pests and diseases.”
TIMCON and the UK Forest Products Association are working with the Commission to develop a national regulatory system for exporting wood packaging abroad, as an international standard on the issue is expected to be adopted by the EU in early 2004.
Delegates were encouraged to work towards increasing global confidence in their products, which include pallets and packing cases, and become proactively engaged in the “inevitable” trend to protect the health of indigenous wood stocks from predatory bugs around the world.
