Plant passport
Also known as: plant passport
A plant passport is the EU document for the movement of certain plants and plant material inside the Union. It does not replace the phytosanitary certificate on import from a third country.
When must a consignment carry a plant passport?
The plant health regulation requires a plant passport for moving certain plants, plant products and other objects inside the Union, and to Switzerland and a number of other closely linked territories. It concerns material that carries a phytosanitary risk: plant material, certain seeds, wood of sensitive species, and a range of plants intended to be planted. Not every box of vegetables needs a passport. Consumption potatoes, certain fruit and a range of end products fall outside it, or fall under it, depending on the species and the destination. The list sits in Union law and in the Dutch implementation of the NVWA. Anyone who does it from memory misses a species that was added last year. The passport travels with the unit: the lot, the bundle, the tray. It is not a consignment-specific inspection document at the external border, it is a label or an accompanying document in internal trade, issued by an operator authorised for that purpose.
Who may issue a plant passport?
An operator authorised by the competent authority, in the Netherlands the NVWA. That authorisation hangs on registration, on knowledge of the quarantine organisms, on an administration of origin and destination, and on the ability to trace an outbreak. A random exporter or a forwarder may not invent the passport themselves. The passport carries a unique code, the botanical name, the traceability code, the country code of origin or of the Member State of issue, and where needed the indication of a protected zone. Without those elements it is not a passport, even if the word stands on it. The holder of the authorisation stays responsible for what they issue. A passport on a lot they have not seen, or whose origin does not sit in their administration, is an infringement. The forwarder who takes such a document into a file does not take over an inspection duty, but they do take along a document that at a control turns out to be invalid.
How does the plant passport differ from the phytosanitary certificate?
The phytosanitary certificate is the import document from a third country, issued by an NPPO, and it is the basis under the CHED-PP. The plant passport is the internal document, issued by an authorised operator, and it plays after the goods are Union goods, or for goods that have never left the Union. On import from a third country you need the certificate, the CHED-PP and the inspection. After release the same lot can go further into the Union, and from that moment the plant passport can take over the internal chain if the species falls under it. The certificate is then the import evidence. The passport is the internal travel document. A consignment that has left the Union and comes back is import again. An old plant passport does not cover that return. A phytosanitary certificate is needed again, and a CHED-PP again. Anyone who tries to bring a returning lot in on the old passport offers the inspection the wrong document.
What does the passport mean for the customs declaration?
For an intra-EU movement there is no import declaration, and the plant passport is then not a customs document. It is a plant-health document that at a control of the NVWA or the KCB has to be able to be shown, next to the commercial documents. On import from a third country the plant passport is not the document on which the CHED-PP rests. That is the phytosanitary certificate. Do not put a passport number in the certificate field of TRACES-NT. The inspector looks for an NPPO number, gets an internal EU code, and the identity check falls. Where the passport does show up in a customs file is on re-export or on a consignment that after import is supplied onwards internally and later leaves the Union again. Then keep both numbers: the phyto number of the import and the passport number of the internal lot. They refer to two moments in the chain, not to the same document.
What do you have to trace if the passport sits in a file?
Origin, destination, botanical identity and the link to the unit that was physically moved. At an outbreak or a notification the NVWA has to be able to see in hours, not in weeks, where the lot came from and where it went. A passport without that administration is a label without a chain. For a declarant or a forwarder who only transports the consignment, the task is smaller: not to lose the passport, not to swap it between lots, and not to use it as a phyto. For an operator who issues the passport themselves, the task is the whole administration, including the duty to report a suspicion of a quarantine organism. Keep the image of the passport with the lot. A number in a WMS without a photo or scan of what physically stood on the crate is later not testable. The inspection tests the label, not your line.
What goes wrong if passport and phyto are thrown into one folder?
The file gets one document type 'phyto' for two documents with two issuing authorities, two number systems and two moments in the chain. On the CHED-PP the passport number is then filled in, or on an intra-EU consignment a CHED is applied for that is not needed. Both errors cost an inspection slot or a useless notification. Split the folder. Phytosanitary certificate on import from a third country, linked to the CHED-PP and to CLIENT PD. Plant passport on internal movement, linked to the lot and to the issuer's authorisation. The same botanical name may stand in both. The number may not. Teach the planner the difference in one sentence. Phyto is the border. Passport is internal. Anyone who can repeat that sentence calls the right service, with the right number, at the right moment. A folder that holds both documents under one label keeps that sentence impossible.