Some parts of EU seed law date back to 1966 and need to be adapted to the changed framework conditions. After the legislative proposal drawn up by the European Commission (EC) to reform EU seed law was rejected by the European Parliament in 2014, the Commission has once again set itself the goal of reforming EU seed law. This reform process was re-initiated with an options paper published by the EC in April 2021 (SWD 2021). In addition, an EU-wide public online consultation on the reform options was conducted from January to March 2022. On July 5, 2023, the EU Commission finally published the draft revision of the Plant Reproductive Material (PRM) Directives. With the amendment of the EU Seed Regulation, the European Commission is pursuing the goal of simplifying the approval of new seeds and other plant reproductive material. To this end, it is planned to reduce the current multitude of directives to a single regulation.
To support the Austrian authorities in the negotiations, the Federal Institute of Agriculture and Mountain Farming is preparing a baseline study on the Austrian seed industry. Within the framework of a detailed sector analysis, the study will cover, among other things, commodity flows (import/export), the propagation and reproduction of seed and planting material, the use of varieties (origin), as well as the value chain (number of jobs, structure of farms, required inputs and own inputs, links to other sectors), as well as the development of international trends in this area. One focus is on the seed potatoes sector, as there is hardly any data or literature available for this sector in Austria. The results are presented separately for the most important crop groups (vegetables, wine, fruit). Relevant stakeholders (AGES, associations, chambers, companies in the seed industry, NGOs) are to be given the opportunity to actively participate in the reform process with their knowledge and to contribute their analyses, assessments and forecasts as a basis for argumentation for the negotiations at European level.
In 2023, an interim report was submitted to the specialist department as background information for the evaluation of the EC proposal on EU seed law. Based on the evaluation of databases, literature research and an assessment by industry representatives, results on the seed sector were summarized separately for the fruit, wine and vegetable crop groups. The research also showed that the existing data gaps regarding Austrian planting stock production are difficult to fill.
After consultation with Department II/5, it became clear that data on the Austrian seed potatoes sector is of great importance. Based on the results already available, data and information was collected by the end of the first half of 2024 with the help of interviews with relevant stakeholders.
Schedule
Project start: 04/2022
Project end: 09/2024
