Plant Passports

As we sell a few excess plants I thought I'd look into plant passports and when they are needed for a hobbyist.

It looks like any plants sold via distance selling would need a plant passport so selling on well known auction sites would come into this category if they were posted. Plant swaps appear to be exempt (no idea how free plants pose less risk to plants that you buy)

Beyond that my eyes glazed over so I thought I'd see if anyone on here has looked into plant passporting.

If anyone has gone through this, is it an onerous process ? And (Yorkshire gene kicking in here) what are the associated costs ?

 

I know they exist as I have seen them on certain plants here at the garden center. I think my Ruby grapefruit has one certifying it. I had an article on it at one time so will have a look.

 

Me again.

You have probably seen this but I had not ...

NEW: EU Plant Passport - What You Need To Know | Plantophiles

... and the latest updated on Monday by the Government ...

Issuing plant passports to move regulated plant material in the EU

I buy live plants from Spain and Portugal via e-Bay so I wonder how this will be affected.

 

Thanks for that. It looks like the inspection cost is £120 minimum and I probably sell less than that in total sales a year so it wont be worth me selling beyond people collecting the plants from the house.

I see the need to control disease and to make plants traceable but I can see this adding disproportionate cost to the price of on line plants.

 

I've been on Hart Canna today (Just looking ) and they have this on their website.

"An advantage of UK membership of the European Union (EU) was that we could send living plants to anywhere within the EU with no need for import/export documentation (which is prohibitively expensive to obtain). Now that the UK is no longer a member of the EU, the situation has changed. We are in a period of uncertainty when we are not sure whether or not we can continue exporting to the EU. For the present we are contiuing to export to the EU.

 

Losing the free trade area that we had with the EU is going to increase costs or make it unfeasible to import / export. Plant passport is more around reducing the risk of spreading diseases although I fail to see the difference between selling a plant in the UK on line and exchanging plants at a plant swap. The cynic in me says that the passport is more about government revenue and less about reducing risk.

We are on a local facebook group for buying and selling plants, along with having a wide network of friends with similar plant tastes. MAFF - that takes me back. It was one of my customers in Leeds - huge sprawling complex of buildings. Plant passport looks to provide traceability of plants and reduce risk of infection - not sure if that is along the lines of the import license.

 

Which is why we have imported half a dozen tree diseases in recent years.

 

Certainly takes me back ...I was PA to the CEO of MAFF in Kidlington, posh offices ... a horrid woman so I only stayed with her for about 10 weeks, which was way too long!

 

Another potential issue for plant imports and exports is CITES currently within the EU nursery propagated species covered by CITES can be traded fairly easily. However for countries outside the EU the costs are prohibitive something like £75 per CITES genus + £1.50 per species per order. As a result many nurseries do not ship cyclamen and galanthus outside the EU; at the moment things continue as before Jan 31st, however who knows what the future holds.

 

True. I believe that happened around 2000. Defra also controls Pet Passports which our British babes had when they came here with us in 2001.

 

Anyone selling plants even over the garden gate must now register with the Defra agency covering their area, Apha in England & Wales, Sasa in Scotland. Anyone distance selling must apply to issue Plant Passports, the charges for hobbyists are under review but at the moment it's a min. of £122 in England & Wales, Scotland have a fixed fee of around £82.
The need for inspections depend on the types of plant you are selling.

 

Thanks @Hemeroholic - lets hope that they review the cost to hobbyists as I can see a lot (and I'm not condoning it) ignoring the plant passport due to cost.

Looks like I need to look into registering.