New EU Plant Health Regulation 2016/2031 / EU (PHR)

What does it mean?

On 14 December 2019 the new European Plant Health Regulation (2016/2031) entered into force. Maybe you have heard a few things about this, but what exactly does it mean to your business?

 

What’s new?

The word  ‘Regulation’ already is saying a few things before your read the complete content. The legislation changed from a ‘Directive’ to a ‘Regulation’. The bottom line is that the EU is becoming a lot stricter with regard to plant health.

This means that the old European Plant Health Directive 2000/29 / EC has been repealed and the so-called Plant Health Regulation 2016/2031 / EU (PHR) has been set in place.

 

Quickly summarized, the 4 main points below are now different:

  • Reassessment of so-called Q-organisms and appointment of Priority Q-Pests.
  • Setting up the «High Risk Plants» category that may (temporarily) no longer be imported.
  • Strict requirements for import into the EU, including with regard to land and production plots.
  • Plant passport obligation applies to all «Plants for Planting» in a prescribed format.

 

Why this change?

By implementing this new regulation, the European Union wants to:

  • offer themselves better protection against pests and diseases while maintaining free trade and market access.
  • be able to take better and quicker measures to find and control diseases and pests within the EU.
  • More attention to product traceability.
  • place more (practical) responsibility in the nursery business

 

What does this mean for you as a customer?

Practically speaking, nothing changes in our FAIRPLANT plants and / or quality. Still a trusted and perfect quality as you are used from us.
With every delivery, a physical EU plant passport is now physically given to the party delivered.
The plant passport obligation is now mandatory for all «plants intended for planting». According to the EU definition, these are plants that can produce whole plants and are intended for that purpose. These plants must be planted out, replanted or remain planted.

At Fairplant we are ready for it! We have been approved by NAKtuinbouw to be allowed to print and issue the new plant passport ourselves. You can see an example of this in the photo with this message.
The new passport is now uniform and recognizable for all countries by means of the European flag and the logical A + B + C + D format.

In addition, as an example, the physical BP, B2 code no longer exists. This code has been replaced by the PZ-ERWIAM code. This PZ-ERWIAM code indicates that your plants are grown in an area (Zone Protecta) that is free of the bacteria Erwinia amylovora.