MEPs back Plant Reproductive Material legislation but industry has mixed reactions

25 Apr 2024 --- The overwhelming majority of MEPs voted in favor of a new Plant and Forest Reproductive Material (PRM) legislation, which sets out to combine and update the EU’s current laws on seeds and seedlings. 

Among the MEPs, 431 backed it, 104 voted against the legislation and 82 abstained. While some celebrate the text’s shift toward “liberalization,” others fear the “deregulation” of the seeds industry.

“The European Parliament (EP) introduced the concept of dynamic conservation and proposed to have the material developed under the scope of it be excluded from the scope of the legislation. We are concerned about that because reading the definition of dynamic conservation, they basically describe what all plant breeding and seed companies do,” Nigel Moore, head of food ingredients at the Germany-based KWS Seeds industry stakeholder and Euroseeds board member for KWS tells Food Ingredients First. 

“By excluding dynamic conservation material from the scope of the legislation on the basis of such definition, the provisions could be misused by any organization to not apply the rules and avoid controls.”

Garlich von Essen, secretary general of Euroseeds, the organization representing the EU’s seed industry, expressed a similar concern: “We remain highly critical of certain provisions in the current proposed text. Given the importance of seed as a starting point for all agriculture and food production, we are convinced that all farmers must be able to rely on proper quality assurance and control for any material they choose.”

Eric Gall, IFOAM Organics Europe’s deputy director, comments: “Our food system should be resilient. This review of the EU seed legislation has the potential to re-introduce much needed genetic diversity and could be a first step to make sure organic breeders and farmers have access to plant biodiversity — specifically allowing the adaptation of seed variety registration rules.”

The debate over the contents of the new legislation and the need for the EU to leverage the global competitiveness of the sector while also maintaining the quality associated with EU products has been ongoing since the European Commission first proposed the text in the summer of 2023. 

A key industry concern is that the new legislation may open the door for certain PRMs to be left unregulated.Quality and standards 
KWS Seeds expresses a concern that the new legislation may open the door for certain PRMs to be exempted by the scope of the legislation in the future, which could, in turn, negatively affect the quality and safety of the resulting crops.

“If out of the scope, basic requirements like plant health and variety identity or quality ones like germination rate will no longer be guaranteed for users of PRM. There could be a higher chance of spreading of diseases and of fraudulent claims in the market,” Moore explains.

“We fear the most negative impact will be for those smaller companies respecting the rules and facing unfair competition by those that will pretend to do dynamic conservation to avoid being compliant with the legislation. We are in favor of proportionate controls, not in favor of exclusion from the scope of the legislation,” he adds. 

The company argues that history has shown that “variety registration, meeting continual improvement standards independently validated and traceable with plant health controls” are practices that have secured food for European citizens since the second half of the 20th century.

The industry player asserts that, regardless of the size of the company, plant genetic resources are fundamental for each breeder. “We have a vested interest in access to genetic material from others, and we create the conditions for others to have access to ours.”

Stakeholders and the wider public should be aware that next to the known larger companies, there are thousands of SMEs in the sector. “The exchange in the sector is continuous, and even outside the sector, we support the conservation and accession of genetic resources.”

The technical-level interinstitutional debates later this year, will likely take diverse stakeholders perspectives into account.“Lately, we have also seen start-up potential by introducing new lower-cost breeding methods and new technologies. However, the plant growth regulator (PGR) new diversity developed even by large companies is freely available for use by all breeders large and small under the breeder’s exemption open source system, so PGR themselves are not constrained by concentration.”

Upcoming challenges and opportunities
Following yesterday’s vote, technical-level negotiations between the EU bodies, including with member states, are expected to take off this autumn.

“We strongly support the revision of the seed marketing directives and consequently the PRM proposal to have modern and harmonized rules across Europe,” Moore highlights.

“The EP text does not represent the final legislative text; there will still be negotiations between the three institutions (trilogies), and we hope that positive provisions, like harmonization on official controls or the possibility to conduct certain tasks under official supervision, will allow the sector to deliver to the benefits of farmers and consumers, too. And further support sustainability, innovation, and food security.”

Commenting on how KWS plans to address or mitigate the potential risks and challenges posed by the approved PRM proposal, he adds: “We will continue working with the EU association Euroseeds and as KWS to provide decision-makers with data and evidence to make them aware of the risks of such provisions.”

By Milana Nikolova