Breeders hope to ensure seeds of doubt aren’t sown

With the UK representing one of the “big three” in Europe for sales of cereal seed, the commercial imperative is likely to ensure that the country will still be served by the major crop breeders in the wake of Brexit.

That was the view expressed yesterday by the managing director of one of Europe’s largest seed breeding houses, Simon Howell of RAGT, a company with its roots in the French countryside.

However, Howell was less sure of how the future regime under which breeders’ royalties would be gathered and rights protected would operate postbrexit, with decisions on this key area for breeders remaining, along with many other issues, in the “pending tray”.

He said that there was currently a harmonisation of regulations regarding variety rights and the collection of seed levies across the EU. This had meant that many of the company’s leading varieties had only to be registered in one country – often Denmark – to allow them to claim royalties across the EU.

He said that the issue was “up in the air” at the moment as no-one knew if “regulatory alignment” would cover issues such as this, or if separate registration

0 Breeders hope Brexit will not hit seed regulations or legislation would be required to protect breeders’ rights in the UK.

However, with some of the varieties bred by the company selling globally, a number of options could be adopted. Howell said that Australian seed royalties were collected on a tonnage basis on the sales of a crop after it had been harvested, rather than on the seed purchased.

But with the breeding and registration of a new variety costing in the region of £4 million, making sure the royalty issue wasn’t overlooked in the Brexit debate was of great importance to the breeders.

Howell also said that while some might think that Scotland was a small sector for the global companies involved in plant breeding, compared with many countries – including England – varieties which proved successful tended to be grown for more seasons in Scotland.

Andwiththetotalincome from seed royalties of wheat standing at around £16m and for spring barley about £8m a year, given development costs, it was important a variety had a relatively long shelf life.

“And this tends to be the case in Scotland,” said Howell who pointed to Concerto’s eight-year run at the top of the malting barley seed sales.

The company’s cereal and oilseed rape product manager, Tom Dummett, revealed two new wheat varieties for Scotland.

Gravity had topped the yield tables and had been given immediate entry into the national list. Despite the fact that it is a hard wheat – and hence not acceptable for the distilling trade – he said the out-and-out yield and good standing characteristics made it an excellent feed variety for Scotland. Although slightly lower yielding, soft variety Universe offered similar characteristics and, said Dummett, was better suited to early sowing.