Plant passport for sellers

A short guide to what you need to sell live plants on ALLIKASILM. It does not replace the PTA guidance; if in doubt, ask PTA: taimetervis@pta.agri.ee.

1. Why a passport is required

A plant for planting sold online must travel with a plant passport. This is required by Regulation (EU) 2016/2031 (Art. 81(1)(a)). The exemption “no passport is needed for amateur gardeners” does not apply to online sales, even for a single plant.

2. Who may sell live plants

Only a FIE or a company (private individuals do not sell on ALLIKASILM) that:

1. is entered in the PTA plant health register (taimetervise register), and
2. has obtained from PTA an authorisation to issue plant passports (taimepassi väljastamise tegevusluba) for the genera it sells.

You issue the passport yourself and attach it to each trade unit. There is no other way: ALLIKASILM does not accept other people’s plants and does not issue passports for them.

3. How to obtain registration and authorisation

1. Register as a FIE (or operate through your company).
2. Sign in to the client portal portaal.agri.ee → Taimetervis → “Taimetervise registrisse kandmine” and submit a notification (majandustegevusteade). The state fee is 32 € (Riigilõivuseadus § 261¹⁹). Once entered in the register, you receive a number of the form EE-…; the data must be confirmed every year by 30 April.
3. Complete the PTA plant passport training. The certificate is valid indefinitely, provided you complete refresher training every 2 years.
4. Submit an application for the authorisation to issue passports through the portal. The state fee is 270 € (Riigilõivuseadus § 261²⁰ lg 2). If you need this authorisation, you do not submit a separate notification to the register and do not pay the 32 €: the data from the application are entered in the register (Taimekaitseseadus § 31 lg 2 p 1, § 31² lg 3). PTA decides within 30 days of receiving all the data; the period may be extended by a further 30 days (Majandustegevuse seadustiku üldosa seadus § 20). Without a PTA decision, the authorisation is not deemed granted.
5. Enter the register number in your ALLIKASILM seller account.

4. What the passport looks like

A separate label with the EU flag and the words “Plant Passport” (“Taimepass / Plant Passport” is also allowed). It contains:

• A: the botanical (Latin) name of the species or genus;
• B: EE, a hyphen and your PTA register number (for example, EE-9999);
• C: the traceability code (batch number). For plants ready for sale to the final user it may be omitted, except for citrus, coffee, lavender, oleander, olive, almond, rosemary, potato and certain others (Regulation 2016/2031, Art. 83(2); PTA guidance). In a protected zone passport (section 6) the code is always mandatory. It is simpler to always include it;
• D: the country of origin (EE).

Any size and font may be used; the text must be legible without a magnifying glass, and the passport must be separated from other text by a border. It may be filled in by hand in block capitals on a pre-printed form. The format follows Regulation (EU) 2017/2313; templates are in the PTA guidance “Taimepassi vormi ja sisu nõuded”, 2026.

5. Where to attach it

• To each trade unit (what the buyer buys as one item): on the pot, bunch or package.
• If one item is a set of several plants (for example, a succulent set), one passport is enough, but field A must list all genera or families in the set (PTA guidance 2026).
• If a parcel contains several different items, each one needs a passport.
• The passport must be legible and firmly attached.

6. Fireblight: protected zone passport

Estonia, Finland, Latvia and Lithuania (except the Kėdainiai district) are protected zones for fireblight (Erwinia amylovora). Host plants require a protected zone passport: “Plant Passport – PZ”, the code ERWIAM and a mandatory traceability code (C), regardless of how they are sold. The passport is attached to each plant or pot. The genera are: Amelanchier, Chaenomeles, Cotoneaster, Crataegus, Cydonia, Eriobotrya, Malus, Mespilus, Pyracantha, Pyrus, Sorbus and Photinia davidiana. The PTA authorisation must cover these genera.

Finland in 2026 is a protected zone for three pests (Implementing Regulation (EU) 2019/2072, Annex III; consolidated text of 15.10.2026; the list for Finland has not changed since 2019):

Bemisia tabaci does not concern Finland: Finland abolished this protected zone in 2018 (Ruokavirasto).

For ALLIKASILM: to buyers in Finland we show fireblight hosts only with a PZ passport ERWIAM, and beetroot and chard plants for planting, their seeds and seed potatoes only with a PZ passport BNYVV0. Sellers’ goods are delivered within Estonia only (Seller terms, section 8.4); this rule applies if delivery to Finland is opened.

7. Seeds

• Only in the packaging of a registered operator. Seeds are accepted only in the packaging of a producer or packer entered in the register of PTA or of the equivalent authority of another EU country, labelled in accordance with seed legislation. ALLIKASILM does not accept home-saved seeds from anyone, including heritage and local varieties.
• Seeds requiring a plant passport (according to the PTA list): onion and leek (Allium), sweet pepper, bean, pea, tomato, broad bean, sunflower, flax, oilseed rape, turnip rape, soya bean, white mustard, lucerne, and among ornamentals Allium spp., sunflower and stone-fruit Prunus. In online sales they travel only with a plant passport, including to the final user (Regulation 2016/2031, Art. 79(1)(d) and Art. 81(1)(a); in the PTA guidance an online shop is considered a professional operator). The producer’s passport on the packet is sufficient. They may only be sold by a seller entered in the PTA register (Taimekaitseseadus § 31 lg 1 p 2).
• Anyone who packs vegetable and other agricultural seeds themselves must notify PTA of packing in advance (Taimede paljundamise ja sordikaitse seadus § 95 lg 2). Only purchased seeds of registered varieties, labelled, in packages of the prescribed size.
• Sealed, industrially packed packets of species not on the list above (carrot, cucumber, radish, etc.) may be resold by any seller: this is not packing, and no notification under § 95 is required.
• Seeds of ornamental (flowering) plants may only be sold by a seller that has submitted a notification to PTA (TPSKS § 4 lg 1, § 63 lg 2).

8. Ongoing obligations

• Self-inspection: inspect the plants and the growing site. Do not ship unless the plants are free of signs of disease and pests.
• Records for 3 years: from whom you received planting material and to whom you sold it (Regulation 2016/2031, Art. 69(4)). For sales through ALLIKASILM the recipient is ALTRIX OÜ and the order number is in your seller account; you do not need to keep the buyer’s data.
• Notify PTA: if you suspect a quarantine pest or disease, notify PTA and ALTRIX immediately and stop selling.
• Changes: update your name, address and contact details in the portal within 30 days; confirm the register data every year by 30 April.

9. If there is no passport

A plant without a passport must not be shipped. A breach is grounds for immediate removal of the goods and termination of the agreement (section 13 of the “Seller terms”), and if PTA imposes a fine on ALTRIX, the seller reimburses it.