The production and marketing of plant reproductive material (PRM, i.e. seeds, tubers, cuttings, rootstocks, seedlings and young plants) is regulated in the EU by a large number of Council directives, the oldest dating back to 1966. The directives on the marketing of PRM are based on two pillars, the authorisation of new varieties and the certification of individual plant reproductive material. The European Commission plans to revise the legal basis, which is in part outdated and highly fragmented according to crop groups. The new regulation is intended to replace ten of the twelve existing directives regulating the placing on the market of PRM. Ornamental plants are to retain their own directive and forest reproductive material will be dealt with in a separate regulation. In July 2023, the EC presented a draft regulation to repeal the existing directives and the European Parliament passed a resolution in April 2024, which forms the basis for the further negotiations in the trialogue between the EU Commission, the Council of EU Agriculture Ministers and the European Parliament on the final legislative text.
To support Austrian decision-makers in the process of reorganising EU seed legislation, the Federal Institute of Agricultural Economics, Rural and Mountain Research was asked to conduct a baseline study on the Austrian seed and planting material industry. As comprehensive information and figures are already available for the seed sector of arable crops like cereals, this study focuses on vegetative propagating material for fruit, vegetable and viticulture. However, the data research as part of the study revealed a lack of data availability; no data is available for centralised analysis of these sectors, despite some basic obligations of farms to keep records. To close these data and information gaps and in addition to an extensive literature research, qualitative interviews were conducted with representatives of the branch, farmers, advisory and administration. The interviews provided also the basis for SWOT analyses of the three above-mentioned sectors.
The sector of producers of vegetative propagating material in Austria is characterised by small to medium-sized family businesses. According to the interviewees these farms have made many investments in the recent years; the producers can be characterised as innovative, motivated and with a high level of expertise. Furthermore, they often operate in a niche production. Due to their small size, plant material producing enterprises are able to respond quickly to special customer requests. An interesting and promising market for the sale of plants material seems to be the horticultural hobby sector. However, the small-scaled structures are disadvantageous when competing with much larger businesses in neighbouring countries. With respect to climate change all companies in the PRM sector share the challenge of bringing climate-adapted varieties onto the market in the future.
With regard to foreign trade in fruit PRM, the most important partner countries are Germany, the Netherlands and Italy. For vegetable seedlings, Germany and the Netherlands are the most important sourcing countries, while exports are most frequently made to Slovenia, Slovakia and Hungary. Slovakia, Slovenia and France are the most important trading partners in viticulture.