Phytosanitary certificates and the ePhyto Hub

Developed by the Standards and Trade Development Facility (STDF), a global partnership that facilitates safe, inclusive trade and development outcomes in support of the UN’s 2030 Agenda, the ePhyto Hub is a web platform that allows countries to exchange phytosanitary certificates electronically.

Commonly known as "plant passports", phytosanitary certificates are documents issued by a National Plant Protection Organization (NPPO) authority in the exporting country, certifying that a certain consignment meets relevant phytosanitary import requirements of the country of import/transit (e.g. freedom from quarantine pests). Products requiring a phytosanitary certificates are plants, plant products or other regulated articles, which can be part of a the same consignment covered by a single phytosanitary certificate.

The advantage of such a system is that it increases efficiency, by enabling the phytosanitary authorities of both exporting and importing country to exchange electronically the information currently provided in paper phytosanitary certificates, that typically, have to physically accompany the consignment in the point of entry in the transit and destination country. In turn, the ePhyto system reduces time and cost for preparing and shipping paper certificates to be transmitted to the NPPO authority of the importing country, avoiding the risk of receiving fraudulent certificates.

Currently, 46 countries in the world exchange phytosanitary certificates through the ePhyto Hub. Characteristics of electronic phytosanitary certificates are described in the ISPM 12 (last edition, 2017), a standard developed by the Secretariat of the International Plant Protection Convention that provides the requirements and guidelines for the preparation and issuance of phytosanitary certificates in general, and that considers electronic certificates as equivalent to phytosanitary certificates in paper form, on condition that they are accepted by the NPPO of the importing country.

In Africa, countries that have adopted the ePhyto Hub and already exchange phytosanitary certificates electronically include South Africa, Ghana, Uganda, Kenya and Morocco.

The STDF is currently working the a similar system (called “eVet”), for exchange of electronic veterinary certification. To this end, some case studies have already been conducted in Nigeria and Swaziland. More information on the ephyto system is available here.