Promoting electronic certification

The Covid-19 crisis has placed additional pressures on sanitary and phytosanitary (SPS) systems, highlighting the need to increase the use of electronic certification. COLEACP has intervened in cases of a number of shipments of fresh produce in recent weeks when issues have arisen with the SPS documentation. We are now liaising with the European Fresh Produce Association (Freshfel) and the International Plant Protection Convention (IPPC) to pilot the e-Phyto solution for the transmission of phytosanitary certificates in fresh produce. An ePhyto is an electronic version of a phytosanitary certificate in XML format, which contains all the information contained in a paper phytosanitary certificate, and can be exchanged electronically between countries.