EU / NI Prohibited Plant Export Update

26 Jun 2023

The EU has a list of high-risk plants (HRPs) in Annex I of Regulation 2018/2019 ( Access here ) which are prohibited from export to the EU pending a risk assessment by the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA). The list includes Acer, Cornus, Fagus, Ficus carica, Malus, Crataegus, Prunus and others. Due to Northern Ireland remaining part of the EU’s Sanitary & Phytosanitary (SPS) zone, it also implements Regulation 2018/2019.

Since the 1 January 2021 these prohibitions have applied to Great Britain, which means the relevant list of HRPs cannot be exported to the EU or moved to Northern Ireland.

UK Plant Health Service is working closely with the Plant Health Advisory Forum (PHAF) of relevant horticultural and forestry trade bodies to ensure that dossiers are prioritised according to the needs of stakeholders and to ensure that the relevant trade information is provided.

Once completed, a dossier is submitted to the European Commission, who in turn ask EFSA to prepare a risk assessment for the specific products covered by the dossier. For more details see Defra UK Plant Health Information Portal . (Access here)