The European Seed Association (ESA) appoints Christophe Rouillard as its new Technical Manager, Plant Health and Seed Trade.
Rouillard is French and following his university education in agriculture (specialisations in crop production, biotechnologies, plant breeding and seed technology) including a number of traineeships in seed businesses and seed related organisations, he started his professional career in the “Service Officiel de Controle et de Certification” (SOC) in 2006 where he became a seed inspector.
As such, he was involved in the official seed production controls, including phytosanitary and laboratory inspections. In 2010, he became responsible for the country-wide seed inspection of maize and sorghum seeds as well as for the overall quality management of SOC as the French national authority for official control and certification of plant reproductive material; in this capacity, he specifically worked on all OECD related matters and has also been involved in other quality assurance schemes such as the European Seed Treatment Assurance (ESTA) and its French implementation by the Plan Qualite Poussieres (PQP). He therefore has already extensive experience and expertise with the rules and regulations governing the seed trade, including phytosanitary aspects, which we intend to further extend in close collaboration with the companies.
As Technical Manager Plant Health and Seed Trade, Christophe will form part of ESA’s new technical team which shall be complemented by a Technical Manager Plant Breeding and Variety Registration (replacing Bert Scholte) for whom the recruitment process is under way and shall be concluded as quickly as possible.
With this, ESA will be able to continue to supply technical expertise to its membership and to all EU and relevant international bodies (such as UPOV, OECD, ISTA or IPPC), from plant breeding to variety testing and registration up to seed quality and phytosaniotary certification and international movement of seed.
