Health

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Health Consumer Protection Directorate General

• Better Training for Safer Food
• 2008

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Seminar 2 Plant Health Internal Controls

• Session 2
• EU Plant Passport Regime

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Major points to be presented

• The legal requirements
• Implementation
• Assumptions to the system of producer
  registration and plant passports
• Requirements for producer registration and what
  needs checking (production storage places,
  paperwork records, etc)

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The legal basis

• Commission Directive 2000/29/EC (former 77/93/EC)
• Commission Directive 92/90/EEC
• Commission Directive 93/50/EEC
• Commission Directive 92/105/EEC
• Other related legislation

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The legal requirements (1)

• Commission Directive 2000/29/EC (former 77/93/EC)
  Article 6, paragraph 5, indent 6
• Any producer for whom the official examination
  referred to in the second subparagraph is
  required under paragraphs 1 to 4 shall be listed
  in an official register under a registration
  number by which to identify him. The official
  registers thus established shall be accessible to
  the Commission on request.

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The legal requirements (2)

• Commission Directive 92/90/EEC establishing
  obligations to which producers and importers of
  plants, plant products or other objects are
  subject and establishing details for their
  registration
• producer, collective warehouse, dispatching
  centre, other person or importer who come under
  Article 6 (4), third subparagraph, Article 6 (5),
  Article 10 (3), second indent or Article 12 (6),
  second subparagraph, of Directive 2000/29/EC
  (former 77/93/EEC) should apply for registration
  and afterwards should be listed in an official
  Plant Health register

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The legal requirements (3)

• Commission Directive 93/50/EEC specifying
  certain plants not listed in Annex V, part A to
  Council Directive 2000/29/EC (former 77/93/EEC),
  the producers of which, or the warehouses,
  dispatching centres in the production zones of
  such plants, shall be listed in an official
  register
• producers, or collective warehouses, or
  dispatching centres in the production zones of
  the products listed in the Annex to this
  Directive shall be listed in an official local,
  regional or national register.

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The legal requirements (4)

• Commission Directive 92/105/EEC establishing a
  degree of standardization for plant passports to
  be used for the movement of certain plants, plant
  products or other objects within the Community,
  and establishing the detailed procedures related
  to the issuing of such plant passports and the
  conditions and detailed procedures for their
  replacement

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The legal requirements (5)

• Commission Directive 2000/29/EC (former 77/93/EC)
  Article 10 and 11 issuing plant passports for
  plants, plant products and other objects
  indicated in the Annex V of this Directive

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Implementation of EC directives

• Transposition of directives into National
  legislation
• Information campaign
• Establishment of special software for
  registration of operators
• Training of staff of SPPS
• Training of operators.

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Information campaign

• Information distributed through
• Radio
• Media
• Distribution of leaflets
• Personal letters (based on import, export and
  national surveillance control system)
• Seminars.

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Establishment of special software for
registration of operators

• Specialist of SPPS along with IT specialist have
  created a software database intended for
  registration of operators as well as for printing
  plant passports
• Purchased necessary equipment for using software
  and issuing plant passports for all 10 regions
• Data base must be created in such a way that it
  would be available at any time for every
  inspector of SPPS.

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Training of staff of SPPS

• All inspectors were trained on
• Legal aspects of registration
• Legal aspects of plant passporting system
• Using software for registration and issuing plant
  passports

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Training of operators

• Ministry of Agriculture (MoA) has
• approved the training programme for operators
• assigned the budget for the trainings
• Experts of Plant Quarantine Division (PQD) have
  trained the operators according to adopted
  schedule
• Further trainings have been performed by the
  inspectors of SPPS
• In cooperation with local Agricultural
  departments of municipalities the lectures were
  delivered during the meetings with the growers

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First step towards the implementation of plant
passporting system Plant Health register!

• Who must be registered at Plant Health register
• Growers, importers and wholesalers of plants and
  plant products which needs plant passports
• Growers, importers and wholesalers of host plants
  of Fireblight as well as potato and citrus
  growers (Lithuanian experience host plants of
  Fireblight and potatoes must have plant passports
  or labels for the final consumer as well) (in
  every protected zone the requirements for
  registration may differ)
• Wholesalers, who buys, sales and transports
  plants or plant products, which already have
  plant passports or needs it after mixing or
  separation of batches (Replacement plant
  passports)

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Who is not necessary to be registered at
phytosanitary register

• Growers and producers who grows and produce
  plants or plant products for their own use.
• Growers and producers who grows and produce
  plants or plant products and sales it on local
  market (except grower of propagation material of
  Fireblight host plants and potatoes) and for
  which it is not the main activity

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The best way to implement PHR

• Divide registration in several stages (years),
  for example
• 1st year importers and growers of propagating
  material
• 2nd year other growers, wholesalers, packing or
  dispatching centers, processing companies
• 3rd year small growers, who grow and propagate
  material for marketing

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Provisions of the PHR legislation

• Data of the Register should be accumulated in the
  sole database (Lithuanian experience)
• The Institution that carries out the registration
  should coordinate, control, systematically
  supervise the objects of the register
• Application data filled in must be as accurate as
  possible and should include all necessary data
  concerning the activities of the register object

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Registration procedure (1)

• Inspector
• provides the operators with the application form
• helps operators to make a scheme of place of
  production
• checks operators declaration
• performs an inspection at the place of
  production
• writes their conclusions

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Registration procedure (2)

• 3 sets of documents
• Application
• Map of place of production
• Confirmation of fee paid
• Conclusions of the inspector
• Laboratory testing results if were performed
• One copy for operator, another for regional
  inspector the third one for PQD.

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Registration procedure (3)

• At the PQD
• received documents are checked
• Entering data into a data base the unique
  registration number is given
• the registration certificate is issued and sent
  to operator via inspector

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Registration procedure (4)

• Registration data
• is saved in paper format, and
• In electronic equivalent
• At the end of every working day, the data at the
  database is updated and the extract is sent to
  every regional post.

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Registration procedure (5)

• The registration certificate is valid for one
  year. Afterwards it must be resumed,
  re-registered or removed if the object has
  changed the field of activities and it is no
  longer related to the plants, plant products and
  other objects concerned.
• Data on removed operators is kept in the archives
  of the database

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Registration procedure (6)

• Lithuanian experience The renewal register
  database every year causes a lot of work at
  least two persons must be involved all the time
• A way out since the inspections are carried out
  each year at the premises of the objects of PHR,
  the draft of Governmental Resolution is prepared
  to make the validation of the certificate of PHR
  for 5 years

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Registration procedure (7)

• The registration data concerning the operators is
  published on the SPPS website
• Public data contains
• Registration ID No.
• Name of the operator
• Address
• Contact person
• Activities production concerned

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Registration procedure (8)

• Official (restricted) data contains
• Registration ID No.
• Code of natural or legal person
• Name of the operator
• Address
• Code of the region
• Full register number
• Activities production concerned
• The volume of production and import
• Kind of production
• Facilities and equipment owned by the operator
• Summary report on inspections performed
• In cases of findings description of
  phytosanitary measures taken

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Registration procedure (9)

• With the rights and obligations the operator is
  introduced by filling the application
• The other side of the registration certificate
  contains
• obligations and rights of the operator according
  to legislation
• obligations and rights of SPPS, frequency of
  inspections, depending on the activities

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The number on the certificate of Phytosanitary
register

• The sample of the number of phytosanitary
  register Nr. 111111-01-AA-IA
• It consists of
• 1. Unique identification code (six figures)
  (111111)
• 2. The number of region in which the activities
  are done (two figures) (01)
• 3. The kind of activities performed (marked with
  two capital letters - AA-IA).

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Since the 18th of April 2002 PHR contains over
4000 operators registered

• Registration according to kinds of activities
• AA grower in the open air
• AS grower in the greenhouses
• IA importer
• SA warehouses, packing centers processing
  companies
• IM importer for scientific purposes.

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Sanctions

• For violation of legislation provisions sanctions
  are applied
• Warning
• Penalty
• Cancellation of registration at PHR (the certain
  period of time is given to operator to remove
  violations, and if during the inspection after
  time given the violations are identified
  repeatedly, the registration is cancelled) It is
  drafted in the amendments of the rules.

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Systematic supervision of PHR (1)

• Two kinds of inspections documentary and
  phytosanitary - can be combined and performed
  during the same visit
• Systematic supervision of the object of PHR must
  be performed at least once a year (documentary
  inspection) in accordance with annualy approved
  plan

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Systematic supervision of PHR (2)

• Storehouses, packing centers and wholesalers are
  inspected to make sure that the plants and plant
  products are purchased from the registered
  growers

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What needs checking?

• Production sites nurseries and other places
  intended for growing propagating material other
  fields, greenhouses and etc.
• Storage places evaluation of possible threads
  during storing period equipment of storages and
  etc.
• Record keeping a copy of plant passports
  received along with purchased plants must be kept
  for at least one year registration of plant
  passports must be made constantly and etc. in
  cases when it is not possible to keep the
  original plant passport it is essential to copy
  the information to the registration book.

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Plant health inspections Lithuanian experience

• at greenhouses in which planting material is
  grown - every two weeks
• at greenhouses in which plants are grown for
  final consumption at least once a month
• at seed producing farms and nurseries - at least
  3 time a year
• at other farms, warehouses and wholesalers - at
  least once a year

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Documentary inspection

• Performed at least once a year
• Includes
• Inspection of stored documents (invoices, plant
  passports received, registration book)

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Requirements for producers

• Objects of the Register are all natural and legal
  persons who grow, propagate, import, store,
  transport, wholesales as well as the persons who
  produce, import, store, transport, wholesales
  plant products and other objects, for which
  phytosanitary control is mandatory.
• Phytosanitary control is mandatory for those
  plants and plant products, whose movement within
  the Community requires plant passports and
  therefore are listed in Annex V of directive
  2000/29/EC

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Conclusions

• The implementation of PHR must be divided in
  several stages
• Information concerning the PHR must be published
  via all possible media
• The renewal of registration is not necessary
• Annual documentary check is a very important
• A good cooperation between inspectors and
  operators (or authorized person) is essential.
• It is useful to have an annual plan for
  inspection of operators.

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Registration at PHR is a basis for issuance of
plant passports!
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Thank you for your attention!