The Department of Agriculture, Land Reform and Rural Development has introduced an electronic system for the application for phytosanitary certificates.
The certificate is required by some organisations and SMEs trading in the agricultural sector, as part of the documentation for the export of agricultural products.
Phytosanitary certificates indicate that consignments of plants, plant products or/and other regulated articles comply with the specified phytosanitary import requirements of the National Plant Protection Organisation (phytosanitary standard-setting body) of the importing country and are in conformity with the certifying statement on the phytosanitary certificate.
The certificates are issued to support re-export certification to other countries.
The e-certification system, which was officially launched today in Boksburg, allows traders to apply for and receive an online version of the phytosanitary certificate. It provides the following benefits:
- All applications are completely managed online.
- Automated response upon completion and processing of the application.
- Tracking of applications by clients.
- Reduction of fraudulent activities related to phytosanitary certificates.
- Issuing of the final e-certificate.
According to the department, the South African export process requires routine daily issuance of a large number of phytosanitary certificates. The introduction of e-certification enhances the capacity of phytosanitary inspectors by automating the entire process and freeing the significant amount of time they spend on issuing paper certificates.
The trial phase of the system started with exportation of grapes from November 2019, followed by citrus and other plant commodities in April 2020, and it started going paperless 2021, says the department.
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