For registration: application and procedure

Registration of a new variety

Before a company can commercialize a new variety of agricultural crops within Europe, it must be registered on the variety list of one of the Member States. A breeder or mandate holder can register a new variety with the Flemish or Walloon region at the following services:

For the Flemish regionFor the Walloon region

Departement Landbouw en Visserij

Ellipsgebouw - Koning Albert II-Laan 35, bus 40 -
1030 Brussel
Tel. 02 552 78 79
Cindy Boonen
cindy.boonen@lv.vlaanderen.be

More info (in Dutch)

SERVICE PUBLIC DE WALLONIE, DGA -

Ressources Naturelles et Environnement

Département du Développement - Direction de la
Qualité
Bât. Place-2ème étage - Chaussée de Louvain 14 -
5000 Namur
Tel. 081 64 95 97 - Fax 081 64 95 44
Nicolas Constant
catalogue.varietes@spw.wallonie.be

Meer info

Procedure after registration

After registration, Belgium - just like all other EU countries - is required to examine the variety according to European guidelines for its novelty (so-called research into Distinctiveness, Uniformity and Stability or DUS research) and its Cultural and Use value (VCU research). The grower pays an annual fee for this.

The Cultural and Use value (VCU) are organized at the national level. When the registration is accepted in one of the Regions, the growers send the propagating material to the research centers: in Flanders to ILVO and in Wallonia to CRA-Gembloux (Département Production et Filières). Together, these research institutes are responsible for an cross-region testing network.

New varieties are compared with standard varieties during a trial cycle of at least two years. Standard varieties are selected from the current registered varieties of the variety list; especially those with the best agricultural characteristics. After each observation year, a report is drawn up with all data and results. These are discussed in a Technical Interregional Working Group on the Variety List.

There are four Interregional Technical Working Groups:

  1. Industrial crops (sugar beet, chicory, fiber flax, potatoes);
  2. Silage maize, fodder beets, green cover crops and cruciferous fodder crops;
  3. Grasses and leguminous plants (clovers, vetches);
  4. Cereals (including winter rapeseed, field peas, field beans and grain maize).

Each working group is chaired by a university professor and is composed of representatives of the Flemish and Walloon Regions, the research institutes that carry out the research, growers and their representatives, representatives of farmers and the processing industry. The working groups present their findings to the Technical Interregional Working Group. This advises the competent Minister of the Region in which the variety has been registered. On the basis of this advice, the variety is registered in one of the Regions. The registered varieties in the two Regions form the base for drawing up the Belgian Catalog of Varieties (Variety List).

A variety is registered in the Belgian variety catalog for a period of 10 years. An extension of 5 years can be obtained if it is proven that the variety has a certain distribution in Belgium and that all or one of its agricultural characteristics is still valuable for agriculture.

National approval means that from that moment on the variety may be multiplied (seed production) and sold. When the variety is admitted in one country of the European Union, it is registered on the European Variety List after a few months and can be sold anywhere in Europe.

More about the variety trials