Pest Week 2024: IPPC best practice guide on measures to minimize pest contamination: “Sea Container Supply Chains and Cleanliness”

 

Today we look at IPPC’s own guidance on pest minimisation.

 

https://www.fao.org/documents/card/en/c/ca7963en

 

This IPPC Guidance identifies the key parties involved in the international container supply chains, and describes their roles and responsibilities for minimizing visible pest contamination of sea containers and their cargoes, and best practices they may follow to meet that objective.  It links to both the safeguarding continuum that we discussed on day 3 and the draft Recommendation R-06 Minimizing pest risk associated with sea-container pathway that we looked at on day 4 of our Pest Week 2024.

How clean is a clean container?

Clean means that the empty container’s exterior and interior and, for reefer containers, also the ventilation inlet grilles and floor drain holes, should, at the time of dispatch, have no visible presence of:

• Soil
• Plants/plant products/plant debris
• Seeds
• Moths, wasps, bees, beetles
• Snails, slugs, ants, spiders
• Mould and fungi
• Insect and bird droppings or waste
• Egg masses
• Animals, animal parts/blood/excreta and reproductive components or parts thereof
• Other contamination that shows visible signs of harbouring pest

 

Inspection health and safety

All the guidelines stress the importance of safety due diligence when inspecting containers for visible contamination. For example, not entering a container if unknown residues are present and using risk assessed safe systems if access to the underside, roof, etc. of a container if it becomes necessary to confirm the presence of visible trace amounts of soil or other contaminations.

Interchange points

There are various “interchange points” in container supply chains, where the custody of a container changes. At each interchange point the aim is to reduce the risk of pest introduction by spotting and ‘cleaning’ visible pest contamination.  The Code of Practice for Packing of Cargo Transport Units (CTU Code) sets out ILO/IMO/UNECE approved industry best practice which includes guidance on minimising pest risk.  The responsibilities in the IPPC best practice guide are summed up in a table (shown below) with requirements on container depots, shippers and packers, terminals as well as consignees and unpackers.  Each party in the supply chain can contribute to defence in depth, maximising the effectiveness of controls designed to prevent pest transfer.

What about ports and terminals? 

The CTU Code states that “intermodal operators” (a term that includes container marine terminals) are responsible for ensuring that “appropriate pest prevention methods are in place”.

For container marine terminals, this primarily means visual inspection of containers that they handle (discharge, stack, store and load) packed and empties.  Operational characteristics of container terminals mean that container inspection will be done from a (sometimes significant) distance and may be constrained by safety or other operational requirements. What is considered detectable contamination will therefore be limited to obvious contamination signs on the exterior of the container. IPPC recognises that “Inspection of the understructure (“undercarriage”) of the container may also be difficult, if not impossible.” and also that “Visual inspection of the exterior of the container cannot be expected to be done in terminals with automated gates.”

When it comes to ports and terminals then, the key control is to where practicable spot obvious exterior pest contamination and have in place plans to manage it if found.  This will include measures such as reporting it to the container operator and/or responsible authority as required as well as criteria and protocols for rejecting containers where necessary.

Minimizing pest contamination of containers and their cargoes is a shared responsibility of several parties in the international sea container supply chains. IPPC argues that by applying best practices described in their Guide and in accordance with their particular roles and responsibilities, these parties can keep containers and their cargoes clean. This will prevent the introduction and spread of pests through international commerce. Containers are also likely to move through ports and reach their final destination faster and with less expense if they are clean.

(Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations Rome, 2020)

 

IPPC material © IPPC