AIPH International Plant Health Conference

Working together for better plant health

The AIPH online conference ‘Working Together for Better Plant Health’ on 24 March 2021, brought together a global audience of growers, traders, scientists, plant-health professionals, and decision-makers from more than 50 countries.

With sponsorship support from Royal FloraHolland, MPS and Visser Horti Systems, an international cast of heavy-weight and high-quality contributors from the ornamental horticulture industry presented their current regional regulatory frameworks and national initiatives in place against plant pests and diseases.

Commenting on the conference, Mr Tim Briercliffe, AIPH Secretary General, said “From this conference it was clear to see that in many countries around the world there is industry recognition that regulatory compliance alone is not enough to protect the sector from plant health threats and to maintain confidence in plant trade. National, industry-led schemes have emerged over recent years. They have been developed independently, but with the same goals.

The conference identified a clear need for more dialogue between countries on this issue and the possibility of developing a benchmark standard that could provide international recognition. The potential for collaboration with National Plant Protection Organisations in this will also enable growers to develop systems that reach common goals in a cost-effective way. AIPH will review the conclusions of the conference and our recent plant health survey to make further recommendations for industry collaboration into the future.”

Industry plant health support programmes for the global ornamental horticulture industry: Review and recommendations

AIPH believes that having robust, transparent plant health standards and industry programmes enables the global ornamental horticulture industry to produce, trade, and supply high-quality live plants and flowers within best-practice plant health measures.

We present expert speakers on the conference’s global virtual platform who can elucidate and elaborate on plant health’s importance.

“KEEPING OUR WORLD GREEN – Raising the profile of plant health”

Mr Ralf Lopian, Chair of the International Steering Committee for IYPH 2020, will open the conference.

Mr Lopian will explain why we have an International Year of Plant Health 2020, why plant health is important to producers and traders, how the future could look like, and what makes public/private partnerships in plant health especially important.

AIPH International Plant Health Survey

Dr Audrey Timm, AIPH Technical Advisor will present the results of our international survey of industry-led plant health initiatives and lessons learned. AIPH developed the survey to gather information about industry-led plant health initiatives to assist in improving plant health systems and practices throughout the global supply chain.

A review of current plant health schemes

Many countries have introduced voluntary schemes, certification and initiatives that support the horticulture industry to produce, trade, and supply high-quality live plants and flowers by defining best practice plant health measures. Country Case studies presented in this conference provide an overview and a comparison of how voluntary schemes are established and implemented around the world.

Case study, Australia – Mr Peter Vaughan, Greenlife Industry Australia will explain how the Australian ornamentals industry has collaborated with regulators to create a robust plant health system.

Case study, Italy – Mr Leonardo Capitanio, President of Italian Nurserystock Exporters Association (ANVE) will share his experiences on how Italian growers have tackled the challenges of Xylella and how they are providing more plant health assurances for the future.

Case study, UK – Mr Alistair Yeomans will present the development of the new Plant Healthy programme for the UK, how it is being implemented in the industry, and what plans they have for the future.

Case study, Netherlands – Mr John van Ruiten, Director of Naktuinbouw, will describe the structure and process of two plant health programmes that support different sectors of the ornamental horticulture industry.

Perspectives from the international cut flower supply-chain – Ms Sylvie Mamias, Secretary General of Union Fleurs, will share insights and lessons learned in dealing with plant health regulatory frameworks and emerging plant health issues that impact international trade flows and call for responsible and due diligent supply-chains.

Case study, USA – Mr Craig Regelbrugge, Senior Vice President-Advocacy and Research, AmericanHort, will describe programmes in the USA that are facilitating the movement of plants across regional and international borders

Case study, Canada – Ms Anita Heuver, Treasurer of the Canadian Nursery and Landscape Association, presents the association’s perspective on the value of their ISO-like system approach to achieve nursery certification, and how it contributes to an industry that produces plants that meet high phytosanitary standards.

Case study, Colombia – Mr Andrés Saenz Merino, Director CENIFLORES, will explain the challenges of importing and exporting plant material without any industry-organised plant health scheme, and how business must adapt.

Conclusions and next steps – Mr Tim Edwards, AIPH Vice President will summarise the lessons from the conference and outline potential next steps for collaboration.

Download the full programme

11:00 Virtual exhibition and networking opportunities on the Hopin platform

12:00 Welcome by Chair – Mr Tim Briercliffe, AIPH Secretary General

12:05 Welcome speech – Mr Tim Edwards, AIPH Vice President and Chair of AIPH Ornamentals Production Committee

12:15 “KEEPING OUR WORLD GREEN – Raising the profile of plant health” Mr Ralf Lopian, Chair of the International Steering Committee for the International Year of Plant Health (IYPH) 2020, will address the justification on why we have an IYPH 2020, why plant health is important to producers and traders, how the future could look, and how public/private partnerships in plant health are especially important.

12:40 Q&A

12:50 National plant health initiatives – Dr Audrey Timm, AIPH Technical Advisor will present the results of an international survey of industry-led plant health initiatives and lessons learned.

13:10 Q&A with Alistair Yeomans

13:20 Case study: Australia – Mr Peter Vaughan, Greenlife Industry Australia will demonstrate how the Australian ornamentals industry has collaborated with regulators to create a robust plant health system.

13:40 BREAK

14:00 Case study: Italy– Mr Leonardo Capitanio, President of Italian Nurserystock Exporters Association (ANVE) will share his experiences on how Italian growers have tackled the challenges of Xylella and how they are providing more plant health assurances for the future.

14:15 Case study : UK – Mr Alistair Yeomans will present the development of Plant Healthy programme, how the industry is involved and plans for the future

14:30 Case study: The Netherlands – Naktuinbouw Elite – description of the impact of this commercial programme on market recognition and improved product value

14:45 Perspectives from the international cut flower supply-chain – presented by Ms Sylvie Mamias, Secretary General of Union Fleurs.

15:00 Panel for questions – the panel will be the speakers for case studies 2-4, and will be chaired by Tim Edwards.

15:30 BREAK

15:35 Case study: USA – Craig Regelbrugge, Senior Vice President-Advocacy and Research, AmericanHort, will describe programmes in the USA that are facilitating the movement of plants across regional and international borders

15:50 Case study: Canada – Ms Anita Heuver, will introduce the Clean Plants program in Canada, on behalf of CNLA.

16:05 Case study: Colombia – Mr Andrés Saenz will share the importance of plant health to the ornamental horticulture industry in Colombia, and explain the challenges of moving plants across international borders.

16:20 This panel-style Q&A session, chaired by Tim Briercliffe, will further explore plant health management systems across North and South America and Africa.

16:45 Conclusions and next steps – Mr Tim Edwards will summarise the lessons from the conference and outline potential next steps for collaboration

International Plant Health Conference

AIPH members are organisations representing the interests of ornamentals producers in their country or region. The global networks, knowledge sharing, and professional connections between members, affiliates, sponsors and supporters put AIPH in a dominant position to positively influence international plant health.

At the beginning of the year members and contacts completed a plant health survey of a kind that has never been done before. The aim was to identify industry-led initiatives that support growers in demonstrating good plant health practices across live plant supply chains. The questions aimed to identify in which countries and regions plant health programmes are used, what the common features between these are, and how effective they are in supporting biosecure and efficient movement across regional and national borders.

AIPH Technical Advisor, Dr Audrey Timm, provided a review of that survey at the International Plant Health Conference, identifying what support the industry has from programmes that provide testing and certification of plant health management systems and processes.

More than three quarters (77.5%) of those surveyed indicated a need for a voluntary international [inter-regional] plant health and biosecurity standard.

AIPH believes that having robust, transparent plant health standards and industry programmes enables the global ornamental horticulture industry to produce, trade, and supply high-quality live plants and flowers within best-practice plant health measures. Plant health programmes aim to enable healthy production systems, cost-effective and reliable movement of low-risk plant material within global supply chains, and traceability in the event of a biosecurity threat.

A full report from AIPH will be available to review in May.

For further details please email AIPH Technical Advisor, Dr Audrey Timm at audrey.timm@aiph.org.