Mobile Seed Processors elect new leadership and defend European Plant Variety Rights against patent monopolies
BRUSSELS, 19 May 2026.
The European Mobile Seed Association (EMSA) held its General Assembly today in Brussels, gathering delegates representing seed processing contractors from Belgium, Denmark, France, Germany, Poland, and the United Kingdom.
New Leadership Elected
During the assembly, delegates elected Sylvain Ducroquet (France) as the new President of EMSA, alongside Andrzej Kaluzinski (Poland) as Vice-President. The assembly extended its deep gratitude to outgoing President and founding member Nigel Day for his years of dedicated leadership; he will remain an active member of EMSA.
Stance on New Genomic Techniques (NGTs)
A major focus of the assembly was the EU Draft Regulation on plants obtained by New Genomic Techniques (NGTs). EMSA welcomes the European Parliament's decision to postpone the vote. While favoring innovation and practical breeding choices, EMSA opposes the current compromise because it fails to implement a full ban on the patenting of NGT plants and genetic information, relying instead on insufficient transparency tools.
This proposal is also a threat for the Community Plant Variety Rights (CPVR) framework. Making new breeding technologies legally uncertain and economically burdensome without equivalent safeguards for breeder access will disproportionately impact smaller breeders and service networks. These risks, alongside contamination concerns, favor a few large corporations and threaten the SME-driven innovation fundamental to the EU seed sector.
Advancing and Protecting Plant Variety Rights (CPVR)
Delegates also engaged with European Commission experts regarding the evaluation of Regulation (EC) No 2100/94 on plant variety rights. EMSA highlighted that Farm-Saved Seed (FSS) is a living and economically vital element of European agriculture, accounting for roughly 58% of all cereal seed sown annually. The current CPVR system is highly successful; an official EU study confirms it contributes over €13 billion to the EU’s GDP and supports over 90,000 direct jobs.
However, the system faces severe threats from oligopolistic concentration, with the four largest agrochemical companies now controlling 56% of the global commercial seed market. To modernize the framework and protect agricultural sovereignty, EMSA urges the European Commission, should it update the Regulation, to extend the Article 14(1) derogation to hybrid and synthetic varieties, accompanied by a fair remuneration mechanism ensuring just compensation to breeders and to update the eligible species list to empower farmers to make the best economic choices for their businesses.
Newly elected President Sylvain Ducroquet stated: "The open architecture of the CPVR is not a weakness; it is the source of its strength. Keeping plant breeders’ rights as open as possible is the only sustainable path towards innovation, food security, and agricultural resilience in Europe, whilst combating the monopolisation of life. We firmly warn against any reform that would dismantle this fundamental balance to satisfy the appetite of agrochemical multinationals for total market control."
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About EMSA
The European Association of Mobile Seed Processors (EMSA) represents mobile seed processors at the European level. EMSA members work in daily partnership with farmers across Europe, providing them with the technical equipment and know-how needed to prepare and replant farm-saved seed, thereby contributing to the competitiveness of European agriculture, biodiversity, and the rural economy. Mobile processing businesses employ hundreds of people across Europe, supporting the social and economic fabric of rural communities.
For more information: please contact Anaelle Creitz info@emsa-seed.eu