New registration rules for French sunflower catalogue
The sunflower market has undergone significant changes: the market has shifted towards eastern Europe, there is greater segmentation between sunflower types (oleics/linoleics, herbicide resistance, pest resistance), and breeding projects are increasingly grouped.
In response to market developments in sunflower production across Europe, the CTPS Sunflower Section created a work group in 2016 to review new VATE evaluation methods and develop new technical regulations in line with stakeholder demands.
The CTPS section for Sunflower, Soja and Castor Seed commissioned a thinking group to develop a new regulatory standard that has been in place since 31 January 2019. The modifications mainly concern VCU testing for sunflower varieties.
Concerning productivity:
- Removal of the threshold for varieties from the first to second year
- VCU admission is based solely upon seed yield with a threshold of 103 percent of average yield checks using a statistical threshold of 0.2 of significant non-difference
- An oil content threshold of 44 percent and an oleic acid content threshold of 75 percent
- Judgement of varieties in relation to two defined markers for the first two years of study for each sunflower type (standard or oleic)
Concerning pests:
- Data from disease related trials is solely informative and does not affect the admission of varieties
- Checks for disease sensitivity will be set up around VCU trails to observe any presence of phomopsis, sclerotinia and verticillium
Concerning timing:
- Commission meetings have all been brought forward by two weeks
- The sunflower section meeting will be held at the end of November instead of mid–December
- Recommendations will be sent during December to be published in the official journal in early January
In addition to these developments, registration fees for the first year have been lowered from 2400€ to 2200€ for linoleic sunflower varieties, and from 2800€ to 2600€ for oleics. For the second year, registration fees have been lowered from 3800€ to 3400€ for linoleic varieties and from 4200€ to 3800€ for oleic varieties.
