20 I SEED WORLD EUROPE I SEEDWORLD.COM/EUROPE | OCTOBER 2026 GETTING SVUF FULLY UP AND RUNNING Seed World Europe: As Secretary General of SVUF, what will be your main priorities in the first phase of your man date? And how do you see the role of the Swedish seed sector within the broader European policy landscape? Nilsson: Given that there was no transfer of tasks and respon sibilities, my focus during these first six months has been to get the association fully up and running again. I need to get acquainted with the details of how the collection system is set up in practice, find out who the major contact persons were, for example at the ministry, agricultural university or other official bodies in Sweden, and also get to know the association members and understand their wishes and concerns. Before I started, I thought about how slow policymaking can be and jokingly assumed that not all that much would have hap pened since I was last involved, so it ought not to be all too hard to get up to speed on the different topics. But indeed, there is so much going on right now, and these are really exciting times. There are the NGT and PRM regula tions, the review of CPVR and the role of the CPVO. The time and work required to feel secure on those topics shouldn’t be underestimated. I truly believe it is important also for smaller EU members, such as Sweden, to try to make our voice heard in policymaking. We’ll never have resources comparable to larger countries, but we can at least take part, listen and work together with other countries, such as Finland and Denmark. Being a small country, I suppose we’re also closer to our policymakers than others, and that can be an advantage. CARRYING PER HENRIKSSON’S WORK FORWARD Seed World Europe: Your predecessor, Per Henriksson, was widely respected and deeply appreciated across the seed sector. How do you reflect on his legacy, and what would you like to carry forward, or perhaps approach differ ently, as you shape the next chapter for SVUF? Nilsson: It is an odd situation, for good and for bad. Because of Per’s sudden absence, in a way I have to reinvent a system that has run smoothly for many years. On the other hand, whether or not there had been a planned successor, I still would have had to find my own way. Now it has just been more complicated. Per at the time took over a well maintained and established farm saved seed (FSS) royalty collection system. He made improvements and fine tuning in the running of the system and, thanks to that, was also able to invest more time in other topics of importance to the members. He became the natural speaking partner for Swedish gov ernmental bodies on questions with an impact on plant breeding and seed companies, while similarly representing the Swedish perspective at EU and international level. I see no reason to have a different ambition for my work with the association. The way the association was founded, the core activity is, and will continue to be, the collection of fees for the use of FSS, and my ambition is to continue improving the system. Perhaps some parts can be further strengthened once the review of the CPVR is finalised and an updated regulation is implemented. There is no reason to put work on hold until then. To men tion one concrete example, my largest wish is to introduce the possibility for farmers to report use of FSS in the single payment application tool. This is something that has been discussed for a long time with the farmers’ association and with the authorities. Indeed, when Seed World Europe profiled SVUF during Henriksson’s tenure in 2017, improving access to information through Sweden’s single payment system was already among the issues facing the association. It would be a tremendous tribute to Per’s work if I managed to finally make that happen in Sweden. FINAL THOUGHTS For Nilsson, taking charge of SVUF therefore represents both continuity and change. The subjects that first introduced her to the association more than two decades ago remain central to its work, but they now sit alongside new questions about breed ing technology, climate, agricultural preparedness and Europe’s evolving regulatory landscape. And after a career spent working on many of those issues from the company side of the table, the circle has indeed closed. Nilsson is now the person charged with helping Sweden’s plant breeding and seed community navigate what comes next. “It would be a tremendous tribute to Per’s work if I managed to finally make that happen in Sweden.”
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