The Swedish sawn wood programme

Export certification of sawn wood from Sweden is to a great extent based on the official Swedish system for approval of heat treatment facilities at sawmills companies. This approval procedure guarantees that the wood has been heat-treated and kiln dried in accordance with a specific time-temperature schedule. In this way, quarantine requirements of most importing countries are fulfilled. The treated sawn wood is marked with the KD 56°C/30 min-mark in accordance with the Swedish Regulation (SJVFS 2020:25) on marking of wood with KD 56°C/30 min-mark.

The KD 56°C/30 min-mark has the following design.

SE-000 is the manufactures registration number at the Swedish Board of Agriculture, where SE is the code for Sweden, followed by a code for Sweden’s county administrative boards and up to a five figured number for the individual manufacturer.

KD is a code for kiln drying.

Export certification of sawn wood

When the exporter applies for a Phytosanitary Certificate (PC), he has to verify that the sawn wood has been heat-treated and kiln dried in accordance with the Swedish official requirements, at one of the facilities approved by the Swedish Board of Agriculture. This treatment assures that a minimum wood core temperature of 56 °C for a minimum of 30 minutes has been achieved in the treated wooden product. Phytosanitary Certificates (PC) for such treated wooden products can then, normally be issued without a specific export inspection in connection to loading of the consignment on the ship.

Control of the exporter's verification is always performed before issuance of a PC, while physical inspection in the harbor is limited to random checks.

The PC is normally issued before the consignment leaves Sweden. The date of inspection is set as the date of the control of the exporter's verification.

In line with the international standard ISPM 12 on Phytosanitary Certificates (PC), a PCmay under certain conditions, also, be issued after dispatch of a consignment. Based on the procedure described above and regular inspections at the heat treatment facilities described below, the Swedish Board of Agriculture can certify that the phytosanitary security of the consignment is assured. We can also do so if the PC is issued after dispatch, if agreed by the Plant Protection Authority in the third country.

For sawn wood which does not have Sweden as the country of origin a physical inspection is always done by the Swedish Board of Agriculture.

Regular inspections of heat treatment facilities and verification of heat treatment and kiln drying

The Swedish Board of Agriculture inspects heat treatment facilities on a regular basis. These inspections include technical verification, e.g. drying schedules, check of compulsory calibrations, documentary checks and physical inspections on the spot.

Inspections also includes investigation of internal processes and logistics of the company in order to secure separation of treated and non-treated wood. The company has to guarantee that marking will solely be used on heat-treated wood.

If the inspections indicate a heat treatment facility do not fulfil the requirements to secure that heat-treated wood can be marked with the KD 56°C/30 min-mark the Swedish Board of Agriculture can require a technical investigation of the heat treatment facility.

The technical report from the technical investigation must show that the heat treatment facility fulfil requirements otherwise the manufacturer is not allowed to mark the treated wooden products.

The approval system also fulfils the treatment requirements in the standard ISPM 15 on wood packaging material, please see The Swedish wood packaging programme.

Lists of approved treatment facilities

We publish a list of, e.g. approved heat treatment facilities on our website. This list is updated continuously. You can find the list in the right-hand column. A few approved facilities have chosen not to have their names on the list. Information is also available at the Swedish Plant Protection Service.