A phytosanitary certificate is an official document, issued by the national plant protection organisation of the exporting country, stating that a consignment of plants or plant products has been inspected and found to meet the plant health import requirements of the destination country. Its purpose is to stop pests and plant diseases moving across borders in traded goods, and its format follows ISPM 12, the international standard for phytosanitary certificates published under the International Plant Protection Convention.
For consignments entering the European Union, the requirement comes from Regulation (EU) 2016/2031, the plant health regulation, which lists the plants and plant products that may only be introduced with a certificate and sets the specific requirements for particular commodity and origin combinations. Whether your commodity needs one depends on the commodity code, the origin and the list in force on the day of shipment, so it has to be confirmed rather than assumed.
Four things about it that catch first-time exporters:
- It is issued on inspection, before departure. The certificate attests to the condition of the consignment when it was examined, so the application has to precede loading and sealing. It cannot be issued retrospectively for a container already at sea.
- It is consignment specific. Commodity description, quantity, marks, means of conveyance, consignee and place of origin appear on the face of it, and any mismatch with the customs declaration is a stop at the border.
- Additional declarations may be required. Certain commodity and origin combinations require specific declarations about treatment or pest freedom, and that list changes as pest risk assessments are updated.
- It is not the notification. The consignment is separately pre-notified in TRACES NT with a Common Health Entry Document, to which the certificate is attached.
A phytosanitary certificate is not a quality certificate and it says nothing about moisture, protein or contaminants. It also is not a fumigation certificate, although a fumigation record is often required alongside it. Those are separate documents doing separate jobs, and a cargo needs all of the ones that apply to it.