b'of the minister, but the actual execution of all operational work fully occurs under the responsibility of the management, without any interference of the board. Both the National Plant Protection Organization (NPPO/NVWA) and the Ministry of Agriculture supervise the work. And in the last 15 years official accreditation (ISO 17020, 17025 and ISO 9001), also safeguarded our unbiased and independent operation. Also, our registered growers (approx-imately 3,000 operators are active in NL in production and trade of horticultural seeds and plants) require and receive professional, objective, and good quality work from our inspectors, laboratories, and variety testing.SWE: PLANT HEALTH HAS BECOME AN INCREASINGLY IMPORTANT ISSUE. IT CAN BE EXTREMELY COMPLICATED FOR INTERNATIONALLY OPERATING SEED COMPANIES TO FULFIL REQUIREMENTS FOR SO MANY COUNTRIES. WHAT IS YOUR FEELING ABOUT THIS?JvR: Plant health issues are nowadays both the backbone and Achilles heel of seed production and trade. With new diseases emerging continuously and old diseases coming back, with increas-ingly ultrasensitive test techniques and with increasing demands from buyers of the material, I expect that plant health topics will be top-of-mind for seed companies management for the next decade. Buyers want disease-free seeds, especially as the possibilities for (chemical) disease control decrease. It is in their own interest that seed companies develop strong varieties and healthy seeds. We haveTomato variety testing at Naktuinbouw.seen that claims related to disease infections possibly caused by infected seeds can be gigantic and can ruin the good name of both a variety and a seed company. (NGS), we are able to find extremely low amounts of pathogens. But SWE: AND HOW ABOUT ALL THESE PHYTOSANITARY CHECKSindeed, the point of what if you find a positive in a sample and can AND REQUIREMENTS AT THE BORDER? AND EVEN MOREit lead to disease problems? is a fundamental question. Is it dead POLITICAL TRADE BARRIERS? or alive, is it environmental DNA that we find, is it pathogenic or JvR: Market access in a global environment requires very seri- not: these are all very fundamental issues. And with the use of these ous management of healthy seed production. Increasing barrierstechniques by more and more inspection agencies, we have to find (regardless of what type) for moving seeds around the globe can onlybetter answers, otherwise the sector and seed trade will run into be overcome by providing adequate guarantees that production, fieldbig problems. Some people have already called it Russian roulette inspection and testing ensure that seeds are reliable and disease free.and I can imagine what they mean. I would like to see cooperative Choosing good locations for seed production, managing hygiene,international projects to address this issue of biological relevance, carrying out continuous checks for diseases and taking quick andfunded by both the seed sector and governments.adequate measures are necessary. And before further processing and marketing: testing and more testing. In my opinion, the test- SWE: NAKTUINBOUW DOES MORE THAN INSPECTIONS. YOU ing should as much as possible be done under the responsibility ofARE ONE OF THE LEADING EXAMINATION OFFICES IN THE EU companies themselves, supported by official monitoring, supervi- FOR VARIETY TESTING. WHICH DEVELOPMENTS DO YOU SEE?sion, and control if necessary. I have always been a promotor of aJVR: Annually, my colleagues in our variety testing department test systems approach for safeguarding plant health. I am very proudover 2,000 new varieties in order to grant plant breeders rights and that colleagues and specialists in my service developed, in closeallow varieties to be listed in EU official variety lists. Important cooperation with the seed companies in ISHI Veg good protocolscrops for us are vegetables, ornamentals, seed potatoes (including and good system approaches like NAL, NAFI, ELITE, GSPP,true potato seeds) and grasses. We work for the CPVO and the SELECT PLANT and other systems to assist companies to stepNetherlands Board for Plant Varieties and are working closely into that development. Participation in our Naktuinbouw programstogether with our EU colleague EOs, like GEVES and BSA, to is possible for companies around the globe. develop DUS test methods. Most of our work is still morphological and relating to biological disease resistance checks. If I look at the SWE: YOU MENTIONED NEW TESTING TECHNIQUES. I HAVEfuture, my expectation is that we willand have toenter more HEARD THESE ARE SO SENSITIVE THAT ONE MAY QUES- and more into the world of testing the variety capacity for nutrient TION IF A DISEASE INFECTION IS REALLY FOUND WHEN Acontent, active compounds, and stress tolerances. I think that testing SO-CALLED POSITIVE TEST OCCURS. characteristics of new varieties with DNA or biomolecular tech-JVR: That really is an important and headache-causing issue. On theniques must be rapidly developed further. Naktuinbouw is at the one hand, we are pleased that we have such good, rapid and sensitiveforefront of these innovations in variety testing and that is a good techniques. With PCR and now also Next Generation Sequencingthing. Introduction of new traits and rapid, reliable, and objective EUROPEAN-SEED.COMISEED WORLD EUROPE I 55'