Seed marketing: Plans to relax EU rules worry the potato industry

Put forward by the European Commission last July, the legislative proposal replaces ten EU directives that currently set standards for the production and marketing of plant reproductive material, including a 2002 directive on the marketing of potato plants. earth. The report by Italian MEP Herbert Dorfmann of the European People's Party (EPP), adopted by Parliament's Agriculture Committee (AGRI), goes beyond the exemptions proposed by the Commission for certain seed exchanges and suggests further relax the rules. For Europatat, the organization representing the interests of European potato and seed potato traders, the AGRI committee's position does not take into account the specificities of this crop, which could have "serious consequences" for the area. “All these exceptions could create a parallel seed market,” Romans Vorss, director of technical affairs at Europatat, told Euractiv. Diseases and phytosanitary risks Just like commercial potatoes, potato plants or “tubers” are in ...