Europe’s Seed Production is on the Move
BY: JOHN LARSEN, EVP EUROPE, DLF
E
uropean seed production is under­
going a gradual geographic shift as 
higher temperatures, drought and 
greater weather variability reshape where 
crops can be produced most reliably. The 
2026 harvest reinforced that direction, with 
dry and hot conditions affecting several 
key production regions and resulting in a 
crop harvest that is expected to be slightly 
below average.
The season also delivered some 
striking reminders of the changing pro­
duction environment. Parts of England 
experienced record-breaking heat and 
prolonged dry periods, while the French 
city of Angers briefly became the hottest 
location recorded by global weather mon­
itoring systems on 25 June, reaching 43°C 
in the shade.
For the seed industry, the question is 
no longer whether adaptation is needed, 
but how to combine productivity, resilience 
and security of supply in an increasingly 
variable production environment. That 
means reassessing production locations, 
strengthening diversified supply systems 
and breeding varieties that can perform 
consistently across a wider range of con­
ditions.
PARTNER CONTENT
A STRUCTURAL SHIFT IN SEED 
PRODUCTION
This longer-term change is already visible 
in where seed crops are being produced. 
Over the past 10 to 15 years, production 
of temperate grass species has steadily 
moved towards more northerly regions of 
Europe as areas that historically offered 
ideal growing conditions face increasing 
pressure from higher temperatures and 
more frequent drought stress during crit­
ical parts of the growing season.
The same development is now 
becoming visible in legumes. Crops such 
as alfalfa and red clover are increasingly 
being evaluated for production in regions 
that offer more stable growing conditions. 
The 2026 season reinforced this trend, par­
ticularly in parts of Southern Europe where 
heat and drought affected pollination and 
seed set in several legume crops.
This is not a sudden relocation of 
European seed production. It is a grad­
ual adaptation that is likely to continue as 
growers and seed companies respond to 
changing production conditions and seek 
to strengthen security of supply.
WEATHER EXTREMES ARE 
BECOMING PART OF THE 
BUSINESS ENVIRONMENT
The summer of 2026 brought exception­
ally high temperatures across large parts 
of Europe. Southern Europe was particu­
larly affected, with France experiencing 
severe drought conditions, heatwaves and 
widespread wildfires during the summer 
months. Similar weather patterns also 
“Resilience is becoming just as 
important as productivity, and 
that reality is reshaping how 
the European seed industry 
approaches production, 
sourcing and plant breeding.”
—John Larsen, EVP Europe, DLF
influenced seed-producing regions in the 
Netherlands, Germany and Denmark.
Any individual season can be viewed 
as a temporary event. Agriculture has 
always operated with weather risk. Yet 
when extreme weather becomes more 
frequent and affects multiple produc­
tion regions simultaneously, it becomes 
increasingly difficult to regard it as an 
isolated incident.
For the seed industry, this means that 
greater weather variability is no longer 
an occasional challenge. It is becoming 
a structural factor that must be integrated 
into production planning, risk manage­
ment and future investment decisions.
At DLF, we increasingly see custom­
ers responding to this reality. Seed supply 
remains fundamentally linked to biologi­
cal production, and weather can influence 
both yield and availability. As a result, 
many customers are securing supply ear­
lier than in previous years, reflecting a 
broader awareness that production con­
ditions have become less predictable.
NEW VARIETIES CONTINUE TO 
DELIVER 
One of the encouraging lessons from 
2026 is that modern varieties continue to 
demonstrate a high degree of resilience 
under challenging conditions.
Decades of plant breeding have 
improved disease resistance, persis­
tence, yield stability and stress tolerance 
across many turf and forage crops. These 
improvements helped mitigate some of the 
production challenges seen this season.
46  I  SEED WORLD EUROPE  I  SEEDWORLD.COM/EUROPE | OCTOBER 2026

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