Description
PROFESSIONAL OPERATORS WHO MUST BE REGISTERED IN THE RUOP
The following must be registered in the RUOP (Official Register of Professional Operators)
- Professional Operators (POs) that produce and wholesale tubers of Solanum tuberosum L. (potatoes);
- collective collection centres and dispatch centres (including traders who package/re-package)
- processing centres;
- exporters and importers of potatoes from/to third countries.
The Professional Operator (PO) registered with the RUOP is required to comply with the following obligations
- write their RUOP code on all the company's administrative documentation (letterhead, invoices, delivery notes, stamps, etc.);
- inform the Provincial Plant Protection Service if they suspect the presence of a quarantine pest
- update personal and contact data within 30 days of the change occurring;
- allow the Provincial Plant Protection Service personnel access to the production sites for control activities;
- communicate annually by 30 April of each calendar year the areas planted with potatoes and their location in order to allow the SFR to schedule the controls provided for by Implementing Regulation (EU) 2019/2072 - Annex VIII - and by the European Decisions on emergency measures against certain quarantine pests of EU relevance (Synchytrium endobioticum, Globodera rostochiensis and Globodera pallida, Ralstonia solanacearum e Clavibacter sepedonicus).
The RUOP-registered PO that produces and wholesales potatoes
- shall not distribute soil from potato processing on agricultural land in order to prevent the spread of any harmful organisms;
- complies with the obligation to affix its RUOP code to each package when moving Solanum tuberosum L.tubers within the territory of the Union (Annex VIII of Ex. Reg. (EU) 2019/2072).
They do not have to register with the RUOP:
- POs that deliver their entire potato production to collective warehouses/shipping centres/wholesalers registered with the RUOP;
- companies that produce and sell ware potatoes directly to end users;
- traders who buy/sell consumer potatoes already labelled and who do NOT package/re-package them.
Traceability (Art. 69 of EU Reg. 2016/2031). The PO must ensure full traceability of the potatoes produced and ensure that all information is kept for at least 3 years in order to ensure, in the event of a phytosanitary problem arising, the rapid identification of the primary source of infection and possible points of spread of the pathogen.
SEED POTATO CERTIFICATION
Seed potatoes must be certified before they are marketed. Particular consideration is given to plant quality and health. In particular, viruses and quarantine pests are examined during propagation and regulated
The planting of potato crops, whatever the crop cycle, is almost always carried out using so-called seed tubers or portions of them, as the multiplication of this solanaceous plant is mainly by vegetative propagation. Each potato variety thus represents a genetically homogeneous population, consisting of individuals all agamically derived from the same tuber, and is therefore endowed with a high degree of character stability, both of the plant and, above all, of the tubers. Varietal testing of these tubers is carried out by the CREA.
The agamic method of propagation, however, can lead to serious phytosanitary problems, particularly with regard to virosis, which is the most widespread disease and potentially the most damaging to the potato, as it is easily transmitted from the plant to the tubers. Therefore, the phytosanitary control of these plants is entrusted to the competent phytosanitary service.