Official confirmation of seed units of agricultural plants

A supplier who intends to market the seed units of a specific agricultural plant species as officially confirmed must lodge an application for the official confirmation of the seed units with the certifying authority.

In the procedure of the official confirmation, the certifying authority establishes if the seed units fulfil the prescribed requirements.

The official confirmation is mandatory for the production of the seeds of cereals, fodder plants, beetroot, oil and fibre plants, seed potato, reproduction material and saplings of fruit plants and vine, but not mandatory for the production of vegetable seeds, reproduction material and saplings of vine plants.

For confirmation, the authority implements the procedure of official confirmation of seed units, if a variety stated in the application:

• in field crops, vegetables, vine and hops: is entered in a variety list or the common catalogue of field crop varieties;
• in other agricultural plant species: entered in a variety list or protected as per the regulations governing the protection of new plant varieties, or generally known.

The procedure of the official confirmation of seed units of agricultural plants consists of:

• official examinations of seed crops or plantations, land and facilities for production, storage and preparation of seed units of agricultural plants for the market;
• official examinations of evidence and documents which should be kept by the supplier of seed unit;
• official samplings and sample testing.

A supplier must cover the costs of the official confirmation as per the price list of the Agricultural Institute of Slovenia.

If during the official procedure the certification authority establishes that the seed units fulfil the prescribed requirements, it issues the prescribed official labels for respective category, appropriately implements the packaging and issues a certificate on the official confirmation of the seed units of agricultural plants.

The deadlines, method of lodging an application, evidence, which should be attached to the application for the acquisition of the confirmation of seed units for the seeds of cereals, vegetables, oil and fibre plants, fodder plants and beetroot, seed potato, fruit plants, ornamental plants, vine and hops are defined in the rules in detail.