EU Plant Passports

[TropiCool]

Question for European members: Can the Plant Passport codes now required on all commercially traded plants be used to help with the 'NOID' dilemma? Does the vendor need to actually name the plant (we hope accurately)? Is there a DB where a Plant Passport can be used to search out the IDs?

 

[Guldal]

That's a really interesting question... to which I would also love to know the answer?!

 

[eds]

They are often only listed to a generic level, sometimes even less specific than that! I received some succulents this year that just said mixed cacti and succulents on the label (though they should be more specific than that according to the legislation in the UK).

They unfortunately seem to be a fairly useless invention once you get beyond wholesalers that will place an unneeded burden on hobbiest growers for little benefit - a shame when the principal behind them is a really good one, to track disease outbreaks back to source.

 

[blondie]

As far as I understand its mainly so they can trace plants back to original grower. Even down to the point if you are swapping plants with neighbours (technically your meant to do passport)

This could have been a fantastic opportunity to plant world but its basically a profit making scheme.

I have since left the Hort world, simply because I was fed up with the paper work. Constantly reading about new pest and disease coming in to the country on plants that are meant to be clean.

This is certainly going to put off a lot of small, growers who grow orchids or any form of plants. As if they get picked for inspection it will cripple them. I have a good friend who is selling to top up his income doing everything by the book, he was scheduled for an inspection but now he will have to have a fall Apha inspection which he's got to pay for.
Like he said it will cost him more than want he makes in plant sales a month.

It's going to put a lot of people off selling which is what we need right now.

Sorry for the rant.

 

[eds]

As far as I understand its mainly so they can trace plants back to original grower. Even down to the point if you are swapping plants with neighbours (technically your meant to do passport)

I completely agree with your post Blondie but this bit isn't right - if you aren't selling for a profit then you aren't counted as a professional and therefore don't need to register or issue passports.

Some members from the BCSS got this confirmed from DEFRA, eventually. There's 24 pages of various wranglings on this thread, EU Plant Passport Scheme - BCSS - Forum

 

[TropiCool]

Thanks all. It seems just as much a bureaucrat's picnic as I feared, with little to no actual benefit to growers who aren't big enough to have hired their own lobbyists to write the laws. *sigh*

 

[werner.freitag]

another burocratic b...sh.., does not help any plant to survive in their habitats

 

[eds]

another burocratic b...sh.., does not help any plant to survive in their habitats

To be fair it was never designed to help wild plants directly - it was designed to prevent diseases spreading through the horticultural supply chain.

Two areas where I think they seem to have gone wrong are;
1. Allowing each member state to work out how to apply it in their area. Unfortunately DEFRA are showing their incompetence here and an insight into what we can truly 'enjoy' once we leave the EU - an absolute disaster for our environment.
2. Not working out a manageable way for this to work for small scale semi-professional growers. Far too many will either try and work under the rules or be stung with large fees unnecessarily.

Knowing DEFRA's track record in enforcement, it will be interesting to see how they enforce these rules, if at all!