First Stevedoring Company to Gain MAF PIPS Accreditation

When the Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries introduced Post Inspection Product Security (PIPS) accreditation to enhance confidence in New Zealand's phyto-sanitary regime for log exports, ISO was the first stevedore in New Zealand to gain approval.

“We got the team together and we made PIPs accreditation our top priority.” Greg Dickson, ISO’s Managing Director remarked. “There were a number of systems to change and people to train. It was a very intense few weeks”.

Three months before the deadline, 7th September 2009, ISO completed its accreditation audit with the new operational procedures in place. The impact was seen immediately; individual logs were identified and rejected at ship side because of incorrect inspection or fumigation status.

“Shipside is the last effective place to catch any mistakes with phyto-sanitary procedures. Our team are trained to only load logs that have been delivered to MAF specifications,” said Greg.