AIC at 20: Securing continued access to plant varieties beyond EU Exit
As AIC marks 20 years as the UK agri-supply industry’s leading trade association, we're looking back at some of its greatest achievements since it was founded in 2003.
Each week throughout 2023, we’ll explore a major achievement where AIC represented its Member businesses, promoted the benefits of modern commercial agriculture in the UK, and supported collaboration throughout the food chain.
This week we’re revisiting how AIC helped ensure the Government maintained UK access to European Union (EU) plant breeding programmes as part of its EU Exit negotiations.
Sowing the seed
The UK's EU exit raised several concerns for the seed sector, not least the ability to continue multiplying plant varieties that may have been developed and registered in the EU.
As a lot of developmental breeding work is done outside the UK, there is an imbalance that places greater pressure on the UK to recognise EU-registered varieties than is the case in reverse.
Maintaining access to EU breeding programmes was vital for both arable and livestock sectors, and important for the wider UK agricultural industry.
With a closely integrated European seed sector, there was a clear value to each seed sector Member in retaining a situation that mirrored, as closely as possible, the UK’s pre-EU Exit position.
AIC made the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) seed officials aware of the acute sensitivities within the seed sector, and it was important that these issues were brought into the wider negotiating scope to ensure appropriate consideration was given as to how they were to be dealt with in the Government’s negotiating strategy.
Close contact with government officials throughout the EU Exit negotiations and ever since has been a core part of the AIC’s policy work.
Find out more about the UK's certified seed sector by watching the video below.
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Visit the AIC at 20 webpage for more content like this.
Authors
Oli Hill
As Head of Communications, Oli creates and oversees the content published on AIC's website, emails, Member briefings, print publications, and social media. A qualified multimedia journalist, he previously spent six years working at Farmers Weekly magazine as a Senior Reporter on the arable team, and latterly as Community Editor. More recently he was Communications Manager at Red Tractor.
Rose Riby
Rose Riby is Head of Combinable Crops and Seed. Having worked across these sectors for many years, she has a depth and breadth of experience in roles in grain trading, plant breeding and knowledge exchange at AHDB.
