Phytosanitary Certificate—What's It For?

This phytosanitary certificate is just one of many document that travel with the vanilla and is needed when going through customs.

The phytosanitary certificate is required for agricultural products shipped internationally and is typically issued by the government agency that oversees plants, plant products, or regulated articles where plants are grown or processed.

The physical agricultural product is physically inspected by the agency and must meet the export requirements. The document can have various details such as the exporter, importer, export certificate identifier, the name of the regulating agency, mode of transportation, the destination country, description of the product and container, additional declarations, and any details about pesticides if applicable—in the case of vanilla pesticides are rarely, if ever, used.

This export document is just one of many that travel with the product and is needed when going through customs.

Below is an example of a Phytosanitary Certificate.