New Plant Passports: Be Ready
Do you already comply with the new EU regulations that come into force on 14 December 2019?
All wholesale growers of pot, bedding and container plants will be subject to the new requirement, including the trade companies that handle these products within the EU.
The new regulations now include plants intended to be planted out, replanted or remain planted. This means that a greater range of plants and plant products will soon require a plant passport.
Why a plant passport?
The plant passport proves that your plants meet the phytosanitary requirements that apply within the EU. It provides traceability to enable the Plant Health Authority to investigate and quickly gain control of any pest or disease outbreak in the event of contamination. The aim is to ensure safe trade, as well as to reduce the impacts of climate change on the health of our crops and forests helping to protect the plant trade and the whole supply chain.
What should the new design look like?
The new passport has a fixed layout and must be applied to the smallest trading unit, such as a pot, tray or box. The information on the passport must be legible to the naked eye and consist of the following information:
Top left corner: the EU flag (in colour or black and white)
Top right corner: Plant Passport (in official language of country of origin) / Plant Passport
A – Botanical name
B – Registration number
C – Traceability code
D – Country code of origin
Can businesses issue plant passports?
Once registered with and authorised by the Animal and Plant Health Agency (APHA), businesses involved in selling to other businesses can issue plant passports.
Being authorised to issue plant passports shows that the business has been officially inspected by the plant health authority.
How can you make a plant passport?
The solution depends on your product packaging and your own requirements. Labels or direct printing onto product packaging are options to consider.
Continuous ink jet systems are used to print variable information on individual products as they move along the production line, regardless of porosity, size, shape or texture.
Coding and marking equipment can be installed on your production line quickly and easily, taking up very little room and can deliver the printing solution needed to comply with the new regulations.
To find out how our small character ink jet printers offer a coding and marking solution to provide consistent error-free codes, reliability and an easy to use interface, please contact us for further information.
References
Regulations: EU Official Controls Regulation 2017/625 and the EU Plant Health Regulation 2016/2031
The Horticultural Trades Association (HTA) publishes regular updates to keep the UK plant producers informed: https://hta.org.uk/assurance-compliance/plant-passporting.html