The mark on the side of an export pallet is a compact document. Once you can read it, you can audit your own inbound packaging in about four seconds per platform, which is a useful skill if you ever receive wood packaging from abroad.
The four elements
- The IPPC symbol. A stylised wheat ear. This is the internationally registered mark and it is the part forgers get subtly wrong.
- The country code. Two letters, ISO format. US for the United States, CA for Canada, CN for China, and so on.
- The producer or facility number. Assigned by the national plant protection organisation to the specific registered facility that performed the treatment. Ours identifies the chamber on Ingram Ave.
- The treatment code. HT for heat treatment, MB for methyl bromide fumigation, DH for dielectric heating. MB is being phased out almost everywhere and plenty of destinations no longer accept it.
The two placements
The mark must appear on at least two opposite sides of the unit, legibly and permanently. One side is not compliant, and a mark that has weathered into illegibility after six months in a yard is functionally not a mark. We burn ours rather than printing, which is a slower process that survives winter.
What the mark does not tell you
- Moisture content. HT is a phytosanitary treatment, not a drying specification. A heat-treated pallet can still be wet enough to mould. If you need dryness, specify kiln dried to a moisture percentage — a separate thing with separate documentation.
- That the pallet is currently compliant. The mark records a treatment that happened. If the platform was repaired afterwards with untreated wood, the mark is void and the platform looks perfectly compliant. This is the most common real-world failure.
- Anything about the dunnage. Loose blocking and bracing inside your load fall under ISPM-15 independently and need their own treatment and marking.
- That the wood is debarked, although it should be. Inspect for bark separately; a strip on a bottom board is grounds for a hold regardless of the stamp.
The forgery tell
Counterfeit marks exist, mostly on packaging from unregistered suppliers trying to clear customs cheaply. The usual tells are a wheat symbol with the wrong number of grains or incorrect proportions, a facility number in the wrong format for the stated country, or a stencil so clean and modern-looking that it was clearly inkjet-printed rather than branded or stencil-stamped. If a mark looks too tidy for the wood it is on, be suspicious.
What to ask your supplier for
A batch record. The mark is the claim; the record is the evidence. A compliant facility logs the chamber cycle with probe temperatures and hold time, and can tie that batch to your shipment reference. If a port queries your load and your supplier can produce that within an hour, it is an email. If they cannot, it is a week and a detention bill.
Auditing your own inbound packaging
If you receive wood packaging from abroad, you inherit a compliance position you did not create. Four seconds per platform at receipt is enough to check it, and the reason to bother is that a non-compliant inbound platform frequently gets re-used on an outbound shipment.
- Is there a mark at all? On two opposite faces, legible.
- Does the country code match the origin of the shipment? A mark from an unexpected country is not automatically wrong — packaging moves — but it is worth a second look.
- Is the treatment code HT? MB fumigation is being phased out and several destinations no longer accept it. If you intend to re-export, MB-marked material is a liability.
- Is there any visible bark? Independent of the mark, and grounds for a hold on your outbound leg.
- Is there evidence of post-treatment repair? A bright new board in a weathered platform carrying a mark is the single most common void in circulation.
The repair void, in detail
This is worth labouring because it catches careful people. The mark records that a treatment was performed on a specific unit at a specific time. If anybody subsequently replaces a board, adds a cleat or screws on a repair plate using untreated wood, the unit no longer satisfies the standard — but it still carries a perfectly genuine mark, applied legitimately, that now misrepresents the unit.
Nobody has done anything dishonest. A dock worker fixed a pallet, which is a sensible thing to do. The documentation simply does not follow. This is why our process treats after repair rather than before, and why our terms require that any post-treatment repair be re-treated and re-marked.
What a good batch record contains
Chamber identity, cycle date and time, probe positions, the full temperature curve rather than a peak value, hold duration at or above 56 °C, the operator, and a unit count tied to a lot reference. Ours links to your shipment reference and goes out with the packing list.
Ask any treatment provider to show you one. The speed and completeness of the answer tells you most of what you need to know about whether their mark is a claim or a record.
Marcus, yard supervisor · Pallets Recycle, 1113 Ingram Ave, Richmond VA · published October 29, 2024 · 857 words. Corrections welcome — tell us if we have this wrong.