Category: Seeds

There have been some important changes in Denmark concerning the EU seed law over the last several months.

EU seed law is based on 12 directives issued at the EU level, and interpreted by each member state into their own language.  These interpretations have sometimes been very different in the various countries, sometimes resulting in a great deal of confusion.

A great deal of attention has often been paid to the definition of marketing, as defined in the directives.  This is from Council Directive 2002/55/EC, marketing of vegetable seed, dated 13 June 2002, article 2.1(a):

“marketing”: shall mean the sale, holding with a view to sale, offer for sale and any disposal, supply or transfer aimed at commercial exploitation of seed to third parties, whether or not for consideration.

Sometimes important things in life come down to a comma.  Does this for example mean “(any disposal, supply or transfer) aimed at commercial exploitation of seed to third parties” or “any disposal, supply or (transfer aimed at commercial exploitation of seed) to third parties”

Because this is an EU Directive, it doesn’t have any legal standing by itself, it simply depends on how each country interprets it.  All EU countries, in various ways, interpreted this to mean individuals are not allowed to exchange or sell seeds.

In the case of a few countries, namely The Netherlands and the UK, as well as probably others, the interpretation of this article created a loophole for seed saving organizations.  If you have a legally registered association, business or other legal entity, and the members of this legal entity exchange seeds with one another, the seeds are not transferred to third parties.  Rather, the seeds remain entirely within the legal entity.  Most EU countries did not interpret this directive in a way that made this loophole possible.

Anyway, the seed savers in Denmark have successfully argued to their government that a big mistake was made, and these directives were never intended to apply to individuals.  They convinced their government to reinterpret the 12 directives, and change their seed law, as well as redefine the term ‘commercial’.  They did this in consultation with the seed industry in Denmark.  The term ‘commercial’ now only applies to the large farmers and monoculture crops.

Non-commercial seeds can now be sold under a significantly relaxed system of registration, also without limits to amounts or packet size.

The Danish seed savers also introduced the concept of ‘Trial Plantings’ which allows the transfer of unregistered seeds to a farmer.  These trials are for the purpose of learning anything, and can be repeated as long as there is something new to learn.  They can be any size, the results of the trial can be sold and the seeds may be saved by the farmer for replanting.

Because Denmark is in the EU, in theory, it is now possible to register a Danish seed company, and sell seeds throughout the EU under Danish law.