Marketing, import and export of seeds

If you professionally package or market seed from seed-bearing plants, you must notify the seed unit of the Swedish Board of Agriculture via e-mail.

• utsadeskontroll@jordbruksverket.se

If you trade with seed of vegetables or ornamental plants, or other seeds, or seeds for which a plant passport is required, you must also register with the Swedish Board of Agriculture’s register of seed companies.

• E-service: Registration of professional production and sales of plants and seeds – in Swedish
• Plant passports, traceability and other measures against organisms harmful to plants
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If you produce, market or store organic seed or organic plant propagating material, you must also register your organic business with the Swedish Board of Agriculture.

• E-service: Registration to the certification system - organic production – in Sweden

If you are going to market seed potatoes, you must register and be approved by the Swedish Board of Agriculture’s seed unit. You must also register in the potato register using an e-service, and you must also register with the Swedish Board of Agriculture’s register of seed companies.

• utsadeskontroll@jordbruksverket.se
• E-service: Registration in the potato register – in Swedish
• E-service: Registration of professional production and sales of plants and seeds – in Swedish
• Plant passports, traceability and other measures against organisms harmful to plants

If you produce, market or store organic seed or organic plant propagating material, you must also register your organic business with the Swedish Agency for Agriculture.

• E-service: Registration to the certification system - organic production – in Swedish

In order to market seed of agricultural plants, the seed must be certified.

• The seed plant must be approved, and seed lots must be approved.
• The varieties that you market must be approved.
• The seed must meet certain requirements such as germination, purity, plant health, and occurrence of weeds. The requirements vary depending on the species and seed class.
• The seed package must be sealed and labelled to verify conformity with EU rules. Certified seed of beets, fodder, fibre and oil plants may be packed in supplier-labelled small packages which also must be sealed and labelled. The seed package must be sealed so that the package cannot be opened without destroying it or the seal.
• The seed package must be marked with an official label, or print directly on the package itself. The label must specify e.g. the species, variety, class of seed and the certification number.
• Certain species of agricultural plants are required to have plant passports. In this case, the labelling of certified seeds must be combined with the plant passport.
• For conservation varieties of agricultural plants, special rules apply.
• Special rules also apply to some species of fodder crops, relating to the derogations for commercial seed.
  

• Conservation varieties – in Swedish
• Plant passports, traceability and other measures against organisms harmful to plants

In order to market seed potatoes, the seed must be certified.

• The seed plant must be approved, and seed lots must be approved.
• The varieties that you market must be approved.
• The seed must meet certain requirements.
• Potatoes may be packed in small packages, which must be sealed and labelled. You can read more about this in Annex 6, point B on the regulations on seed potatoes.
• Seed potatoes must have a plant passport. The plant passport must be combined with the label.
• Special rules apply to conservation varieties of potatoes.

• Conservation varietes – in Swedish
• Plant passports, traceability and other measures against organisms harmful to plants

In order for you to be able to market vegetable seed, the seed must meet the requirements for controlled standard seed as decided by the Swedish Board of Agriculture or be certified.

• Businesses undertaking packaging or labelling seeds in small packages must keep records of stocks and packaging of lots and mixtures on a continuous basis.
• The seed must be of approved varieties.
• The seed must meet certain requirements such as germination, purity, plant health, and occurrence of weeds. The requirements vary depending on the species.
• The seed package must be sealed and labelled to verity conformity with EU requirements. Vegetable seeds may also be marketed in small packages, which must be sealed and labelled. All seed must be officially labelled or labelled with a supplier label. The packager is responsible for the contents of the package.
• Certain vegetable species must have a plant passport.
• The seed package must be sealed so that the package cannot be opened without destroying it or the seal.
• Special rules apply to seed of conservation varieties of vegetables and to amateur varieties of vegetables.
• If you market seed professionally, you must register your business using the e-service Registration of professional production and sales of plants and seeds.

• Conservation varieties and amateur varietes – in Swedish
• Plant passports, traceability and other measures against organisms harmful to plants
• E-service: Registration of professional production and sales of plants and seeds – in Swedish

There are also rules for those who professionally pack, label or market seeds of ornamental plants and certain fruitplants.

• The seed must be quality controlled to ensures satisfactory germination and plant health.
• You must label the seed to verify conformity with EU requirements. The name of the variety must, for example, be shown.
• The rules are different depending on whether the seed is marketed to professional or non-professional end user.
• Certain varieties must be included in a list kept by the supplier and the list must be kept for at least three years.
• Certain species of ornamental plants must have plant passports.
• If you market seed professionally, you must notify your business operations to the register of companies that produce or trade with ornamental seed. You register via our e-service.
• Registered suppliers must keep documentary evidence of their marketing or purchases for at least one year.

• E-service: Registration of professional production and sales of plants and seeds – in Swedish
• Plant passports, traceability and other measures against organisms harmful to plants

When to register the plant propagation material

You must register the plant propagation material by the latest

• 20 October the year before the spring season in the case of species intended for sowing and planting in the spring.
• 1 June in the case of agricultural species intended for sowing in autumn, as well as agricultural and horticultural species intended for planting in autumn.

In the periods in between, you may not register new material with the exception of varieties and mixtures already available in the database.

Example 1: You receive a batch of over 25 tonnes of the oat variety Delfin in March. Delfin is registered as available in OrganicXseeds with another seed company. You may register your batch even if it is after October 20.

Example 2: You receive a batch of the white cabbage Kalorama in February. The variety Kalorama was deregistered in January and there are no seed companies that have any seed of the variety anymore according to the database. You may not register your new batch of Kalorama in OrganicXseeds until autumn.

The reason is that growers should be able to plan their cultivation for the current season in a reasonable time, without the conditions for available seed changing during the season. This applies, for example, to order seed and the possible need to apply for an individual authorization to use non-organic seed if there is no registered seed in the database.

Your plant propagation material must be available for growers to order by

• 1 December in the case of species intended for sowing and planting in the spring.
• 10 June in the case of agricultural species intended for sowing in the autumn, and agricultural and horticultural species intended for planting in autumn.

In order to be able to register the variety in OrganicXseeds, you must be able to deliver the following amounts:

• Winter oil plants: at least 500 kilos
• potatoes: at least 3 tonnes
• blue lupin: at least 5 tonnes
• cereals and pulses: at least 25 tonnes
• feed corn: 3 tonnes
• 1 tonne lay seed for fodder purposes of
  - Perennial ryegrass, Lolium perenne
  - cocks-foot, Dactylis glomerata
  - Italian rye-grass, Lolium multiflorum
  - lucerne, Medicago sativa
  - festulolium, Festulolium (Festuca ssp. x Lolium ssp.)
  - red clover, Trifolium pratense
  - red fescue, Festuca rubra
  - tall fescue, Festuca arundinacea
  - timothy, Phleum pratensis
  - white clover, Trifolium repens
  - Westerwolds ryegrass, Lolium multiflorum var. westerwoldicum
  - common meadow grass, Poa pratensis
  - meadow fescue, Festuca pratensis
• 200 kilos of other species of ley seed intended for fodder.
  

You must de-register the variety from OrganicXseeds when you do not have the following quantities of seed left:

• Winter oil plants: at least 500 kilos
• potatoes: at least 3 tonnes
• blue lupin: at least 5 tonnes
• cereals and pulses: at least 15 tonnes
• 1 tonne ley seed for feed purposes of
  - perennial ryegrass, Lolium perenne
  - cocks-foot, Dactylis glomerata
  - Italian ryegrass, Lolium multiflorum
  - lucerne, Medicago sativa
  - festulolium, Festulolium (Festuca ssp. x Lolium ssp.)
  - red clover, Trifolium pratense
  - red fescue, Festuca rubra
  - tall fescue, Festuca arundinacea
  - timothy, Phleum pratensis
  - white clover, Trifolium repens
  - Westerwolds ryegrass, Lolium multiflorum var. westerwoldicum
  - common meadow grass, Poa pratensis
  - meadow fescue, Festuca pratensis
• 200 kilos of other species of ley seed intended for fodder.

Requirement of at least 70 percent by weight of organic seed or seed from conversion land

Mixtures containing organic seed or seed from conversion land must contain at least 70 % by weight of such seed. A maximum of 30 % by weight may consist of conventionally grown chemically untreated seed.

All mixtures marketed must be approved by the Swedish Board of Agriculture. You may use the mixtures that we have approved without applying for an individual authorization. The mixtures that are approved are shown by Organic­Xseeds in the category Approved mixture.

Mix different varieties

You may not mix a variety of organic seed or seed from conversion land with the same variety of conventional seed. There must be different varieties in the same mixture.

The Swedish Board of Agriculture approves the mixtures

You must apply for the Swedish Board of Agriculture to approve 70 percent mixtures before you register them in OrganicXseeds.

• Form for application for approval – in Swedish

If the company market mixtures with only organic seed or seed from conversion land, you may register them in Organic­Xseeds without applying for approval from the Swedish Board of Agriculture.

Labelling

The labelling on the packaging must meet the requirements according to the seed legislation and plant health legislation. In addition to that, there must be information on the exact components of the mixture, expressed as weight in percent per included species and variety, as well as which species/varieties are organic, and which come from land under conversion.

The following text must also appear on the packaging if the Swedish Board of Agriculture has approved the mixture:

"The Swedish Board of Agriculture has approved the mixture according to regulation (EU) 2018/848. It may only be used in Sweden".

Mixtures without organic seed

Organic growers may, in some cases, use mixtures with only conventional chemically untreated seed. This applies if the grower has received a decision on individual authorization for the varieties or species included in the mixture or if a general exception applies to the species, crops or varieties included in the mixture. It is the grower who is responsible for meeting the requirements.

The identification of an OHM must be possible on the basis of all of the following information:

1. The parent material and production system used by the operator to develop the OHM. This includes describing the type of technique used for the breeding or production method of the organic hetero­geneous plant material and whether the selection has occurred naturally and/or as a result of conscious work.
2. In which country OHM is bred or produced.
3. A description of the main common characteristics and the phenotypic hetero­geneity of the material.

Small packages of seeds (up to 30 kg depending on the species) may be packed without special sealing requirements. Larger packages must be sealed in such a way that they cannot be opened without the package or container showing that they have been opened.

There must be a yellow label with a green diagonal cross on the packaging or container. The label must be legible, unused and clearly visible. If the information is printed directly on the packaging or container, the green cross on the yellow background does not need to be included.

For small, transparent packages, the label may be placed inside the package, provided that it is easy to read.

The following information must appear on the label:

1. the name of the hetero­geneous material and the words ‘Organic hetero­geneous material’
2. the text “Union rules and standards”
3. name and address of the person responsible for affixing the label or his customer number to the inspection body
4. country of production
5. reference numbers assigned by the person responsible for affixing the labels
6. month and year of sealing after the word “sealed”
7. species indicated at least by its botanical name, which can be indicated in Latin letters in abbreviated form and without an author
8. specified net or gross weight or number in the case of seed, excluding small packages
9. if weight is indicated and pelleting substances or other solid additives are used, the type of additive and the approximate ratio between the weight of pure seed and the total weight
10. information about the plant protection products that the plant propagation material has been treated with (you may only use plant protection products that are approved for organic production)
11. the current germination of the lot, where the organic hetero­geneous material does not meet the minimum germination requirements.

There is an exemption from packaging and labelling requirements. This applies to small quantities of OHM and if the buyer requests in advance written information on the species, the name of the material and the reference number of the lot, at the time of delivery. You may market OHM directly to end users without the OHM being sealed and labelled in packaging or containers. The small quantities applicable is different for different crops.

There is no requirement for an OHM to be certified according to the seed rules in order for it to be marketed. However, even an OHM needs to meet basic minimum requirements for health, analytical purity and germination. You must analyse the seed and it must not contain spores of Tilletia caries or Tilletia contraversa. There must not be any seeds of wild oat or Lolium temulentum. Seed cultivations of organic hetero­geneous material must be free from wild oat.

If you bring in seed lots of OHM from another country, there must be an official document certifying at least one of the points below:

• the batch is grown in a field which has been free from wild oat (Avena fatua and Avena sterilis) and that a sample of 1 kg from the batch is free from wild oat
• a sample of 3 kg from the batch is free from wild oat.

The minimum germination requirement need not be met if the actual germination of the lot is indicated on the packaging.

We have published all registered OHM in other EU countries on our Swedish web page under the headline "Registrerat OHM i andra EU-länder".

• Registered OHM in other EU countries – in Swedish

Anyone who markets OHM must save the following information for 5 years:

• a copy of the notification of the material and all documents submitted to the Board of Agriculture
• copy of all documents and records kept for the control of organic production
• copy of the organic production certificate from the control body
• information allowing to identify who has left the mother material for breeding or production of heterogeneous material, if applicable.

The operator or producer of the OHM must also have an up-to-date record or register available at all times. It must contain the following data:

• species and name of the notified material
• the type and technique used to produce the notified material
  
• a description of the notified material
• place where the material notified has been bred
• place of production and area used to produce the notified material
• the quantities produced from the notified material.

Seed lots, to be propagated or marketed, from agricultural plants must be notified to the Seed Unit of the Swedish Board of Agriculture.

• utsadesexpedition@jordbruksverket.se

Trade in seed potatoes from the United Kingdom is prohibited due to EU phytosanitary regulations, regardless of equivalence decisions or free-trade agreements.

The Swedish Board of Agriculture is to be notified of lots if the lots exceed 2 kilograms.

It is not possible to import controlled standard vegetable seed from third countries because it cannot be marketed after it has entered the country.

You may import seeds of ornamental plants from nearly any country. The seed must meet the same quality requirements as are applied in the EU.