Trade with plants and plant propagating material

Register professional production and sales of plants and seeds

Register your professional production or sales of plants and seed

If you professionally produce or trade in plants, plant propagating material or seed, you must be registered at the Swedish Board of Agriculture, except in a few specific cases. The purpose of the registration is to enable the tracing of pests, and to check that you meet the requirements for the production of, and trade with plants.

You must register your professional activities in the following cases

You have to register your professional activities if your enterprise

• need a permit to issue plant passports
• produce plants, including plant reproductive material and plant products, that require plant passport
• trade with other companies with
  
  • plants or plant products that require plant passports (issued by a previous supplier)
  • plants or plant products for which your company issues a plant passport, e.g. for growing, replanting, repackaging of seed
  • plant propagating material for ornamental plants
  • plant propagating material for vegetables or vegetable plants
  • plant propagating material for fruit and berries or fruit and berry plants

• via e-commerce or by mail order
  • market plants or
  • seed which require at plant passport
• trade, package, re-package, re-label or store seed
• is the main responsible agent in Sweden for packaging, labelling, marketing or trade seed of vegetable or ornamental plants which is marketed under its own brand or the brand of an enterprise in other EU Member States, such as the main office of a retail chain.

You do not have to register your professional activities

• If you only market the following products to non-professional end users in a physical store or similar physical location:
  • plants that you have purchased
  • plants you have grown yourself.

• if you only sell:
  • pre-packaged seeds you bought from other professional enterprises other than your own and which you sell in unbroken packages
    
  • seeds of non-woody species of ornamental plants, if you market less than 5,000 seeds per variety and year or if you have an annual turnover from the seed marketing that is lower than 1.5 price base amount and it is not via e-commerce or by mail order with seed that require plant passport

Plant passports are required when you trade within Sweden or with other EU Member States

If you professionally trade in or move plants and propagating material within Sweden or between EU Member States, the products shall in most cases have a plant passport. A plant passport is a label attached to the product, which certifies that the product has been checked and is free from regulated pests. The purpose is to prevent the spread of regulated plantpests and, when necessary, enable the tracing of pests which have been spread. Plant passports are issued by the company that is authorized to issue plant passport. To issue plant passports, you must first register with the Swedish Board of Agriculture.

• Plant passport, traceability and other measures against pests

Phytosanitary certificates are required for trade with countries outside the EU, and there are certain import bans

If you are buying plants or propagating material from a country outside the EU, there must be a phytosanitary certificate for the products. This is a document which is issued by the plant protection authority in the exporting country, showing that they have checked the products and verified that the products are free from regulated plant pests. You also need to notify the import ahead of time. Please note that if you move the products between countries within the EU after the import, the movement will require plant passports.

Some plants entail such considerable risk that they are not allowed to be imported at all if they originate from certain countries or certain parts of the world.

If you are selling plants or propagating material to a country outside the EU, you need to find out what the rules are in the recipient country. Some countries require a phytosanitary certificate for the products. You can apply for a certificate with the Swedish Board of Agriculture.

• Phytosanitary certificates and other measures against plant pests

Trade in propagating material of ornamental plants, vegetable propagating materials and vegetable plants

These rules apply to you if you produce or trade with propagating material for ornamental plants including seed from woody ornamental plants, or with plant propagating material for vegetables or vegetable plants.

The rules apply to all genera and species which are intended for ornamental use, and those genera and species which are intended for vegetables use indicated below.

If you produce plant propagating material and plants, you must meet the requirements in the Swedish Board of Agriculture’s regulations on ornamental plants and vegetable plants. This means, among other things, that you must:

• Register your business with the Swedish Board of Agriculture. You must update the information from the previous year, if it has changed, no later than April 30 each year. You can use our e-service for this registration and update.
• Identify, monitor and document your production to ensure that the production generates plants which meet the health and quality requirements. You should retain the documentation for one year.
• Send samples for analysis when needed.
• Keep different batches of propagating material and plants separate, both during production and marketing. The lots must also be identifiable.

The propagating material and the plants shall

• be viable and show typical development for the species or variety
• be practically free from harmful organisms and of defects.

Plants showing symptoms of harmful organisms must be either destroyed or treated where possible. For several harmful organisms, the rule is that no plants with symptoms must be detectable when inspected visually.

Vegetable plants must be of a variety that is registered in the Swedish list of plant varieties or in the EU Plant Variety Portal.

• Swedish List of Varieties
• EU Plant Variety Portal (ec.europa.eu)

Propagating material and plants shall be sold in lots with accompanying documentation. They may also be marked with labels. Anyone selling propagating material or plants shall document purchases, sales and deliveries. Your business accounting suffices as documentation.

• E-service: Professional production and sales of plants and seeds – in Swedish

Trade with plants for fruit and berries

The rules apply to plants, propagating materials and rootstocks. The specific genera and species for which these rules apply are given below.

The rules apply to you if you

• produce or trade with certified plants or propagating material
• produce or trade with CAC quality plants
• sell plants directly to non-professional users.

The rules also apply to organisations, enterprises, or others who wish to register varieties in the Swedish list of plant varieties.

Import of fruit and berry plants from countries outside the EU

Fruit and berry plants that you import from a country outside the EU must meet the same quality requirements that apply within the EU.

Since January 1st 2026, the exporting country must be approved before you are allowed to import fruit and berry plants. You can find a list of approved countries in the European Commission’s implementing decision (EU) 2026/75 on the equivalence of fruit plant propagation material and fruit plants intended for fruit production that are produced in certain third countries. The decision lists the countries that are permitted to export, as well as the species and the quality standards applicable for each country.

Trade with forest reproductive material

If you professionally produce, store or market forest reproductive material, you shall register your business with the Swedish Board of Agriculture. You must update the information from the previous year, if it has changed, no later than April 30 each year. You can use our e-service for this registration and update.

• E-service: Professional production and sales of plants and seeds – in Swedish

Further information about other rules that apply to trade with forest reproductive material can be found on the Swedish Forest Agency’s website.

• The Swedish Forest Agency’s website (skogsstyrelsen.se)

Forest reproductive material comprises seed, parts of plants, plants, plant cuttings, pinecones, acorns and similar, which are used in forestry.

Trade with organic products

You must be certified for organic production if your products are marketed as organic.

• Rules for and certification of organic production – in Swedish

When you trade with organic plants, plant propagating material and parts of plants with countries outside the EU, there are additional rules that you must comply with in order to be permitted to sell them as organic in Sweden and the rest of the EU.

• Import and export of organic products – in Swedish

Fees for registered companies

There is an annual fee for registered companies of SEK 2,200.

Companies that only handle seed that are not covered by the plant passport rules do not pay an annual fee.

Fees for inspections

Businesses that have a permit to issue plant passports pay SEK 3,400 per inspection.

The following companies shall also pay an annual fee of SEK 2,050 for public inspections:

• companies producing propagating or plant material of vegetables, ornamental plants and fruit plants
• companies that we inspect for fire blight in pears
• companies that have applied for approval or certification of fruit plants.

If an inspection takes longer than one hour to carry out, an additional fee of SEK 950 per hour started will be charged.

Legislation

• Förordning (1977:945) om trädgårdsväxters sundhet, sortäkthet och kvalitet
• Utsädesförordning (2000:1330)

• Commission implementing decision (EU) 2026/75 concerning the equivalence of fruit plant propagating material and fruit plants, intended for fruit production, produced in certain third countries (eur-lex.europa.eu)