Do you need a plant passport to sell plants online in the UK?

Plant passports are needed to move "all plants for planting, some seeds, seed potatoes, wood and wood products, isolated bark" within Great Britain, and to the Isle of Man and the Channel Islands (GOV.UK).

There is an exemption for plants supplied directly to a final user, such as a home gardener. But the law says that exemption does not apply when the final user receives the plants through a distance contract (Article 81). A distance contract is a sale where you and the buyer are not together when the sale is agreed: a website, an online marketplace, social media, a magazine advert or a phone order.

GOV.UK puts it plainly: if you sell plants online to people buying them for personal use, "a plant passport is still needed". Defra’s FAQ adds that distance sellers must provide a passport "down to the final user, even if that final user is buying for personal use" (Plant passport FAQ, Q2.9).

"You do not need a plant passport for other retail sales - for example, if you sell plants to customers paying in person" (GOV.UK). That covers a nursery counter, a market stall or a plant fair where the customer pays and takes the plant away.

The exemption is about how each sale happens, not about your business as a whole. A seller with a market stall and a website needs passports for the parcels, even if the stall sales are exempt. There is also no exemption when you supply other businesses: "There is no exemption when you directly supply retailers."

The rules apply to professional operators. Defra says you are likely to be one if you regularly sell plants or plant products with a view to making a profit (Defra). Signs that you sell regularly include:

Passports are about "plants for planting": anything intended to be planted, replanted or to stay planted. The table below summarises common products for online sellers. Where official guidance does not name a product, the table says so.

The official guidance does not name individual marketplaces. What matters is the same two questions as for your own website: are you selling regularly for profit, and is the plant sold remotely and sent to the buyer? If both are true, each parcel needs a UK plant passport, whichever platform the order came through. Plant passports for marketplace sellers goes through each platform.

Selling on several platforms usually means several order exports. The Etsy and Shopify workflow guides show how to turn those exports into labels without retyping every order.

Getting set up has two parts: register with APHA as a professional operator, then apply for authorisation to issue UK plant passports. Online registration and authorisation are free; APHA charges for the inspection that follows. The steps and costs are in How to get a plant passport in the UK.

Once authorised, you attach a passport to each parcel and keep records for 3 years. UK plant passport label requirements shows exactly what the label must say.