ISPM 15: Why Your Wooden Pallets and Crates From China Need a Stamp

If your cargo from China sits on a wooden pallet, or is crated in solid wood, that timber is regulated at the border. ISPM 15 is the international standard that governs wood packaging material in trade, and a pallet without the right mark can get your consignment held, ordered for treatment, re-exported, or destroyed — regardless of how compliant the goods themselves are. This is a small detail that causes outsized delays, and it is entirely avoidable at the packing stage.

What ISPM 15 is and why it exists

ISPM 15 — International Standard for Phytosanitary Measures No. 15 — was created under the International Plant Protection Convention to stop wood packaging from carrying pests such as wood-boring beetles and nematodes between countries. Raw timber can harbour larvae that survive a sea voyage and establish in the importing country. The standard requires that solid wood packaging is treated to kill those organisms and marked to show it. It applies to pallets, crates, boxes, dunnage, drums, and load boards made of solid wood.

What is covered and what is exempt

Covered: solid (raw) wood used as packaging or bracing — the everyday Chinese export pallet, wooden crates around machinery, timber wedges and blocks used to chock cargo in a container. Exempt: manufactured wood-based materials such as plywood, oriented strand board, particleboard, and veneer that have been made using glue, heat and pressure, because the process already destroys pests. Also generally exempt are thin wood pieces below a small thickness threshold, and packaging made entirely of processed material. If a crate mixes solid wood framing with a plywood skin, the solid wood parts still need to comply.

The two accepted treatments

There are two main treatments recognised under the standard. Heat treatment (marked HT) raises the core of the wood to a specified minimum temperature for a minimum time. Methyl bromide fumigation (marked MB) is a chemical alternative, now restricted or banned in a growing number of countries for environmental reasons, so HT is the norm you should expect and prefer from a Chinese supplier. A newer dielectric heating option also exists. The treatment must be done by a provider authorised by the national plant protection organisation in China, which is what gives the mark its authority.

Reading the mark

A compliant piece of wood packaging carries a stamped or branded mark, not a paper label, in a visible location on at least two sides. The mark contains: the IPPC symbol (a stylised wheat ear), a two-letter ISO country code (CN for China), a unique number identifying the treatment provider assigned by the national authority, and a treatment code (HT or MB). There is no date and no company name in the official mark. When your cargo is packed, ask the supplier for photos of the pallet and crate marks before the container is sealed — it takes two minutes and it is the single best way to avoid a border hold.

What happens at the Bangladesh border if it is wrong

Plant quarantine at the port can inspect wood packaging. If a pallet has no mark, an illegible mark, or shows live infestation, the options open to the authority include ordering treatment or fumigation at your cost, requiring the wood packaging to be removed and destroyed, or in serious cases re-export of the consignment. Any of these means the container is not moving while it is resolved, and demurrage and detention keep running. Because the problem is the packaging and not the goods, importers are often blindsided — the invoice, the HS code and the licence were all perfect. Our guide to the plant quarantine certificate covers the wider agricultural-import picture.

How to keep it from happening

• Put a line in your purchase order requiring all wood packaging to be ISPM 15 compliant and HT-marked.
• Ask for dated photos of the pallet and crate marks as part of the packing confirmation, before the container seals.
• Prefer plastic or presswood pallets, or plywood crates, where the product allows — they sidestep the issue entirely.
• Check that container dunnage and bracing timber is marked too, not just the pallets — loose chocks are a common miss.
• If you use a consolidator, confirm their CFS only builds on compliant pallets.
• Keep the mark photos in your import file so you can answer a quarantine query quickly.

A note on re-export and your own shipments

If you re-export goods from Bangladesh, or export your own products, the same standard applies in reverse — your wood packaging must be treated and marked by a provider authorised by the Bangladesh plant protection authority. Exporters who have only ever been importers sometimes discover this the hard way when a buyer’s customs rejects an unmarked pallet. Build compliant packaging into your export costing from the start.

How treatment providers are authorised

The number in the ISPM 15 mark identifies a specific facility that the national plant protection organisation in the exporting country has authorised to treat and mark wood packaging. In China that authorisation is issued and audited by the plant protection authority; providers are inspected, and the right to apply the mark can be withdrawn for non-compliance. This is what gives the stamp meaning — it is not a self-declaration by the factory. When you ask your supplier for photos of the mark, you are checking that a real authorised provider treated the wood, and the two-letter country code plus the provider number lets a Bangladesh quarantine officer verify it against the international register if they choose to.

Recycled and repaired pallets: when the mark is void

A pallet that has been repaired — a replaced board, an added block — must be re-treated and re-marked, because the new component was never treated. A compliant pallet carrying an old, illegible, or painted-over mark can be rejected even if it was genuinely treated once. Chinese exporters sometimes reuse inbound pallets to save cost, and a mixed pallet with one treated deck and one untreated repair board is exactly the kind of thing plant quarantine looks for. Specify new or verifiably re-marked pallets in your purchase order, and reject photos that show a mark you cannot read clearly on at least two sides.

A purchase-order line you can copy

Add this to every order that will move on wood: “All solid-wood packaging, crating, and dunnage must comply with ISPM 15, be heat-treated (HT), and carry a legible IPPC mark on at least two sides. Supplier to send dated photographs of all pallet and crate marks before the container is sealed. Plywood or plastic pallets preferred where product weight allows.” It costs nothing, and it moves the responsibility to the party who controls the packing. Keep the photos in the same file as your customs documentation.

Alternatives that sidestep the standard entirely

The cleanest way to avoid a wood-packaging hold is to avoid regulated wood. Plastic pallets, pressed-wood (moulded) pallets, and metal frames are outside ISPM 15 because they are not solid raw timber. Crates skinned and framed in plywood or OSB are treated as processed material. For lighter products, a supplier can often ship on plastic pallets at little extra cost, and for repeat shipments it removes a recurring risk from your delay checklist. Where the product weight genuinely needs solid-wood bracing, insist on new heat-treated, properly marked timber and the pre-seal photos — but ask the supplier first whether a non-wood option exists for your load.

Want your China shipments checked for wood packaging compliance before they sail? We add the ISPM 15 clause to your purchase order, verify the pallet and crate marks at packing, and keep the evidence in your import file so plant quarantine is a non-event. See our services, contact us via the contact page, use our China sourcing and buying agent service, or visit the shop.