Marketing, import and export of seeds

If you are professionally packaging or marketing seed from seed-bearing plants, you must notify your activities to the seed unit of the Swedish Board of Agriculture via e-mail.

• utsadeskontroll@jordbruksverket.se

If you are trading with seed for 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 businesses.

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

• utsadeskontroll@jordbruksverket.se
• E-service: Registration in the potato register – in Swedish

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

• The seed installation must be approved, and the lots of seed must be approved.
• The varieties that you market must be approved.
• The seed has to meet certain requirements on e.g. the ability to germinate, purity, plant health, and the occurrence of weeds. These requirements vary depending on the species and class of the seeds.
• The seed must be sealed and labelled so that it can be verified from the outside that the EU requirements are met. Certified seed of beets, fodder, fibre and oil plants may be packed in supplier-labelled small packages which must also be sealed and labelled. The seed packaging must be sealed so that it cannot be opened without destroying the package or the seal. The seed packaging shall be labelled 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.
• 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

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

• The seed installation must be approved, and the lots of seed must be approved.
• The varieties that you market must be approved.
• The seed shall meet certain requirements.
• Potatoes may be portioned into small packages, which must be sealed and labelled. You can read more about this in Annex 6, point B in the regulations on seed potatoes.
• Seed potatoes shall have a plant passport.
• 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 allowed 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 that package or label seed in small packages shall continually keep records on the stock and the packaging of lots and mixtures.
• The seed must be of approved varieties.
• The seed has to meet certain requirements on e.g. the ability to germinate, purity, plant health, and the occurrence of weeds. The requirements vary depending on the species.
• The seed must be sealed and labelled for conformity with EU rules. Vegetables 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.
• 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
• E-service: Registration of professional production and sales of plants and seeds – in Swedish

There are also rules on permission to market seeds of ornamental plants and certain fruits.

• The seed shall be quality controlled so that it has sufficient germination ability and plant health.
• You must label the seed to make it visible that it complies with EU requirements. The name of the variety shall, for example, be shown.
• If you market seed professionally, you must notify your business operations to the register of businesses which produce seed or trade with ornamental plants. You can make this notification through our e-service.

• E-service: Registration of professional production and sales of plants and seeds – in Swedish

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
  - lucern - Medicago sativa L
  - 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 L
  - 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

From 2022, 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 can 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.

Seed lots, to be propagated or marketed, from agricultural plants shall 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 resold 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.