Plant passport

The Swiss-EU plant passport system is a preventive risk management measure designed to make trade in plants and seeds safer, thus providing better protection against particularly dangerous pests and diseases. The plant passport is an official attestation for the supply (commercial or non-commercial) of regulated plant goods within Switzerland and for exchanges with the EU. It certifies that the goods meet plant health requirements and are subject to regular official controls.

The functions of the plant passport:

• certifying to the recipient that the plant material has been produced under officially controlled conditions and is free from regulated plant diseases and pests,
• ensuring traceability.
  

 

Who can issue plant passports?

Plant passports can only be issued by authorised operators and by the competent authority in the country concerned (in Switzerland, the Swiss Federal Plant Protection Service/SPPS). Operators that have to issue plant passports require authorisation from the Federal Office for Agriculture.

Authorised operators’ compliance with the conditions for authorisation is regularly checked by the SPPS or by a delegated control body (Concerplant, Vitiplant or the SZG). If they produce goods for which a plant passport is required, they must notify the SPPS each year of the relevant production plots and production units and the goods produced there. Each authorised operator is required to maintain a list of purchases and sales.

 

For what goods is a plant passport required?

• Plants and parts of plants (other than seeds) which are intended to remain planted, to be planted or to be replanted, regardless of the botanical species – for example, pot plants, plant arrangements in bowls, seedlings, cuttings, tissue cultures, bulbs, tubers, etc.
• Seeds of certain species (see below)
• Citrus fruits with leaves and peduncles
• Wood obtained from Juglans (walnut), Platanus (plane) and Pterocarya (wingnut)
• Plants and parts of plants not intended for planting (other than their fruits and seeds) of the following genera: Choisya (Mexican orange) and its hybrids; Citrus (citrus plants), Fortunella (kumquat), Poncirus (trifoliate orange) and their hybrids (incl. fruits with leaves and peduncles); Casimiroa, Clausena, Murraya (orange jasmine, curry tree), Vepris, Zanthoxylum and Vitis (grapevine)

Plant passports are not required for cut flowers, Christmas trees, potatoes and onions for consumption and similar plant products for consumption which are not intended for growing-on by customers and are not associated with any known phytosanitary risks.

Seeds subject to plant passport:
A plant passport is required for seeds intended for sowing of the following genera and species:

• Capsicum spp. (peppers)
• Pinus spp. (pine)
• Pseudotsuga menziesii (Douglas fir)
• Solanum lycopersicum (tomato seeds)
• Solanum tuberosum (true potato seeds)

For seeds intended for planting of other genera and species (see list in the document below), a plant passport is only required if the seeds are intended for commercial use (e.g. agricultural production). Thus, no plant passport is required for seeds supplied to private persons through distance sales (e.g. online commerce).

Pflanzenpasspflichtige Samen (PDF, 178 kB, 30.11.2020)

When must a plant passport be issued?

A plant passport is required for the supply (commercial or non-commercial) of regulated plant goods within Switzerland and for exchanges with the EU.

Exceptions:

• In the case of direct (local) supply to persons not using the goods for commercial or professional purposes (personal use by individuals), a plant passport is not generally required (exception: protected zones).
• For certain purposes, the Federal Office for Agriculture (FOAG) or the Federal Office for the Environment (FOEN) may, on request, grant exemptions from the requirement for a plant passport.

More information on exemptions

Plant passports for protected zones

A «protected zone» is an area in which a specific harmful organism is not present despite the environmental conditions being favorable for its establishment. Such zones (Latin: zona protecta - ZP) are defined in relation to a particular harmful organism and exist in the EU. There is currently no protected zone in Switzerland. Certain plants and plant products may only be moved into protected zones with a protected zone plant passport. Plant material with a protected zone plant passport meets the requirements specified for a protected zone for the harmful organism concerned.

Protected zone plant passports may only be issued by operators that have been authorised to do so by the SPPS (or the responsible plant protection service in the concerned country). Applications can be submitted to the SPPS via the IT application CePa.

The plant passport for a protected zone must have the words «Plant Passport – PZ» (optionally also in an official language of Switzerland or of the EU) in its upper right-hand corner. Immediately underneath, the scientific name or EPPO code of the relevant harmful organism must also be given. For example, in the case of fireblight, this would be «Erwinia amylovora» or «ERWIAM».

 

 

Last modification 14.04.2022