Who needs a plant passport
All plants for planting require a plant passport when they move from one professional operator to another. Host plants for protected zones must have one all the way to the end user, meaning anyone who acquires plants for personal use. Online sellers must be authorised to issue passports.
Professional operators must register with DAFM, and DAFM then sends a letter with a Plant Health Registration number in the format IE00xxxx. That number identifies the operator and goes into all correspondence with the Department.
What the passport contains
The passport carries the words “Plant Passport” in the upper right-hand corner and the flag of the Union in the upper left-hand corner, in colour or black and white. Teagasc lists the same elements: the EU logo in the left-hand top corner and the words plant passport in English.
| Field | Content | What to match at receipt |
|---|---|---|
| A | Botanical name of the plant species or taxon; the variety name is optional. | Compare the name with your order and with the plants actually delivered. |
| B | Two-letter Member State code (IE for Ireland), a hyphen and the operator’s registration number. DAFM’s example is B IE001234. | Copy the code exactly as printed, with its letters and hyphen. |
| C | Traceability code of the plant. It may be supplemented by a barcode, hologram, chip or other data carrier on the trade unit. | Write it next to your own incoming-lot number. If a barcode does not scan, keep the printed code and ask the supplier how to look it up. |
| D | Where applicable, the third country of origin or the Member State of origin. | Take the origin from this field, not from the seller’s address or the place the goods were loaded. |
If a field is unreadable or the label has come off, keep those plants identifiable and ask the supplier. Do not fill in the missing value from another batch that looks the same.
How to check a plant passport
Check that all four letters are present with the content in the table, and that the passport is attached directly to the commercial unit, such as a pot container, bundle or package. It must be clearly visible and legible, unchangeable and durable, and separate from other information on the same medium, with its elements in a rectangular or square text area. DAFM adds that it must be clearly distinguishable from any other label and set apart from other written or pictorial matter by a border line or otherwise.
The B field holds the Irish registration number of the operator who issued the passport. A passport for plants from another Member State shows that country’s two-letter code instead of IE.
Photograph the whole passport so the flag, the heading and the lettered fields are all in one frame, and take a second photo showing how it is attached to the pot, bundle or package. Check that the photo is sharp enough to read before you send the plants on. A cropped barcode alone is not enough, because it hides the readable names and codes.
A pot label, a delivery note and a catalogue entry can each carry a different number. Ask the supplier which one is the passport for the unit you received, and file it with the supplier name, the delivery date and your incoming-lot number. If one passport covers several lots, ask the supplier to separate them before you spread the plants across the nursery.
If the packaging is damaged, work out which plants belonged to the affected unit and keep the remaining labels with the plants they came with.
Protected-zone passport
For movement into and within protected zones the passport reads “Plant Passport — PZ” in the upper right-hand corner. Directly beneath it come the scientific name or the code of each protected zone quarantine pest. Teagasc notes that PZ replaced ZP, which was used previously.
In part D of a protected-zone passport the Member State of origin is given as a two-letter code.
If you need to ask DAFM about a protected-zone movement, copy the “Plant Passport — PZ” heading and the pest name exactly as printed. Say which species you have, where it came from, where it is going, who will receive it and what it is for. Do not alter a received passport to make it fit a different destination.
Plant passport application
An operator who sells plants to other professional operators, sells plants online or sells protected zone plants needs authorisation to issue plant passports. Only authorised professional operators can issue them. Registration alone does not give this right.
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The application has two stages.
Before you apply, write down what the business does: whether you grow the plants, buy and resell them, split units or sell online, plus your premises, customers and planned movements. Ask DAFM which of those activities need registration and which need authorisation to issue passports, and quote your registration number if you already have one. If premises, contact person or activity change later, ask DAFM what must be updated; do not assume that a colleague’s training or another business’s authorisation carries over.
After stage 2 the Department issues a Certificate of Authorisation. An operator who fails the inspection has 14 days to meet the outlined requirements.
Splitting a delivery and replacing a passport
An authorised operator that received a trade unit with a passport may issue a new passport that replaces the original.
When a trade unit is divided into two or more new units, the authorised operator responsible for them issues a passport for each new unit, provided that traceability requirements are fulfilled, the goods meet the pest-freedom and any protected-zone requirements, and the characteristics of the plants have not changed. For protected-zone hosts, part D of the replacement passport gives the Member State of origin followed by the registration number of the operator who issued the initial passport.
When a unit is divided, ask the authorised person responsible which passport arrangements apply to the new units. A replacement passport is an issuing activity, not a photocopy of the old label.
Follow the delivery through the nursery with a short table, so every group can be traced back to the incoming passport before dispatch:
| Event | Question to answer |
|---|---|
| Receipt | Which supplier unit and original passport came with these plants? |
| Division | Which of your groups came from the original unit? |
| Relocation | Which bay, bench or tunnel holds each group now? |
| Treatment | Which plants received the recorded pesticide application? |
| Sampling | Which group and location did the sample come from? |
| Dispatch | Which recipient and outgoing unit link back to the incoming plants? |
| Rejection | Which plants were held back and who judged the problem? |
An internal location code is not a passport number, so do not let staff treat it as one.
If you suspect a pest
Record the plant’s botanical name, how many plants you inspected, where they are and the date. Photograph the whole plant and the affected part, and note whether the plants are newly delivered or already mixed with other stock. Label samples from different lots separately. Describe what you see (insects, eggs, feeding marks, discolouration) rather than naming a quarantine pest from a photo. Tell your supervisor which related plants are elsewhere in the nursery and which units have already left, and ask DAFM or your crop adviser what to do before moving the plants.
Records DAFM requires
Professional operators must keep records of plants supplied to other professional operators and plants supplied to them by other professional operators for at least 3 years. They should also have systems to identify the movements of plants within and between their own premises.
A change of name, address or contact person must be notified to the Department within 30 days.
Pesticide records are a separate record
A plant passport records plant identity and traceability. Do not write a treatment on it or treat it as a spray record. Pesticide use is recorded on DAFM’s own sheets: purchase, disposal and use records, and the IPM and Pesticide Application Record Sheet. For each treatment, note the exact product and the lot treated; “treated on arrival” is not enough to reconstruct what happened. If the supplier says the plants were treated earlier, keep their statement and lot reference. See the spray-record sheet guide and the field and crop record guide.
Plant passport number search
To search for a plant passport number or to search for a plant passport, read the passport on the plant's label and compare its number with the delivery documents.
Next step
Match each delivery’s passport fields A to D against the plants received, and keep treatment details in the separate crop record.