Exchange with Eco-PB on organic varieties
At the invitation of Eco-PB (European Consortium for Organic Plant Breeding), GEVES was invited on 6 September to meet with some European breeders active on the organic market to discuss the challenges of the temporary experiment on organic varieties adapted to organic production. This experiment will be set up within the framework of the application of the regulation 2018/848 on organic production.
A group of GEVES and CTPS experts were present at this pre-conference, which was organised prior to the Organic World Congress, which was held from 6 to 10 September in Rennes.
After a presentation by members of Eco-PB recalling the interest for the organic market to have access to more heterogeneous varieties, the CTPS and GEVES were able to discuss the proposal made by Eco-PB for a DUS protocol adapted to organic varieties suitable for organic production. They expressed the need to evaluate, in the framework of temporary experiment, the impact of the application of such a protocol on the reference collection for DUS studies, the capacity to distinguish new varieties following the integration of more heterogeneous varieties in the reference collections and the maintenance of these varieties over time. The importance of a shared methodological approach between the different Member States that will participate in this temporary experiment was underlined.
