If you ship houseplants, young plants, or seed to customers in Great Britain or the EU, plant passports are not just a nursery-gate formality — they are required for distance sales, which pulls most online orders of plants for planting into scope. The label itself is five short elements; the hard part is the traceability code, which only works if it maps to real lot records on your side. Here is who needs to issue passports, what goes on the label, and how to keep the records behind it.
Who needs to issue plant passports
In Great Britain and the EU, plant passports are required for most plants for planting in two situations: when they move between professional operators (nursery to nursery, wholesaler to shop), and — the one online sellers miss — when they are sold at a distance to final users. An online order shipped to a consumer is a distance sale, so the parcel generally needs a passport even though a walk-in retail sale of the same plant might not. Sellers must be registered and authorized to issue passports, and must keep records linking each passport to the plants moved.
In practice, that puts these businesses in scope:
- Nurseries selling young plants, plugs, or potted stock online
- Seed sellers, where the species or category is covered by passporting rules
- Houseplant shops shipping to consumers by mail order
- Growers and wholesalers moving stock to other professional operators
Exactly which species and commodities are covered varies, and the rules are maintained by the plant health authorities — APHA in Great Britain, and the national plant health authority in each EU country. Check their current guidance for your products before deciding you are out of scope; the registration and authorization process runs through them too.
What goes on the label
A plant passport is a standardized label with five elements: the words “Plant Passport”, the botanical name, your registered operator code, a traceability code, and the country of origin.
| Element | What it is | Illustrative example |
|---|---|---|
| “Plant Passport” wording | The literal words identifying the label as a plant passport | Plant Passport |
| Botanical name | The scientific name of the plant or seed | Monstera deliciosa |
| Registered operator code | The code you receive when the plant health authority registers you as an authorized issuer | XX-1234 (assigned to your business on registration) |
| Traceability code | Your own code linking this passport to your lot records | MON-2609-A |
| Country of origin | Where the plant was grown | GB |
Four of the five elements are static or near-static for a given product. The traceability code is the living one — and it is where passport schemes quietly fail.
The traceability-code problem
The code on the label is only half the system. When a pest or disease issue surfaces, tracing has to run in both directions: from a customer’s passport code backwards to the batch it came from and the supplier who grew it, and from a suspect batch forwards to every order that shipped from it. A code invented at the packing bench, with no ledger behind it, can do neither.
That means the traceability code must be — or must map one-to-one to — your internal lot number. A consistent lot number format makes the mapping trivial, and a per-lot ledger gives you the forward trace: every order deduction against the lot, with its order reference, is a shipped passport you can enumerate. TraceLot turns that forward trace into a one-click recall CSV per lot listing every affected order.
A PASSPORT WITHOUT RECORDS IS JUST A STICKER
Issuing passports comes with a duty to keep records linking each passport to the plants moved. The label satisfies the customer-facing half; the records satisfy the authority when it comes asking. Check current APHA guidance (GB) or your national plant health authority (EU) for the retention specifics that apply to you.
Carry the passport code on every lot automatically
TraceLot’s custom batch fields hold the plant passport traceability code and country of origin on each lot from the moment it is received — and carry them through to the pick list and the packing slip, so the code your customer sees is the code your ledger knows.
Explore custom batch fieldsHow TraceLot handles passport data
TraceLot treats passport data as lot data, because that is what it is. Plant passports and custom fields work together: when you create a lot at receiving, custom batch fields capture the traceability code and country of origin, and those fields flow with the lot — from receiving, to the picker choosing stock, to the packing slip in the box. There is no separate passport spreadsheet to keep in sync with inventory.
Underneath, the per-lot batch ledger records the receipt with supplier and quantity, every order deduction with its order reference, corrections with reasons, and transfers between locations. Supplier paperwork — including the passports on stock you received — attaches directly to the lot it covers, so a backwards trace ends at the actual document rather than a search through email. The records support your passporting duties; the registration, authorization, and inspection side stays between you and your plant health authority.
Frequently asked questions
Do I need a plant passport to sell plants online to consumers?
In Great Britain and the EU, plant passports are required for most plants for planting sold at a distance to final users — which covers typical online orders shipped to consumers. Scope depends on the species and commodity, so check APHA guidance in GB or your national plant health authority in the EU.
What information must a plant passport show?
Five elements: the words “Plant Passport”, the botanical name, the registered operator code of the authorized issuer, a traceability code, and the country of origin.
Do seeds need plant passports?
Some do. Passporting covers plants for planting, which includes certain seed depending on the species and category. Whether your seed lines are in scope is a species-level question — confirm it against current guidance from APHA or your national plant health authority rather than assuming seed is exempt.
What records must I keep when issuing plant passports?
Issuers must keep records linking each passport to the plants moved, so an issue can be traced backwards to the source batch and forwards to the orders that shipped from it. A per-lot ledger with receipts, order deductions, and the traceability code stored on the lot supports this; check official guidance for the retention period that applies to you.
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