18th Meeting of the Panel on certification of fruit crops
Prague, 2007-06-04/06
The Panel met at the Crop Research Institute in Prague. Its main task is to develop certification schemes for the production of healthy planting material of fruit crops. During this meeting, the Panel finalized the following 3 certification schemes which will be presented to the Working Party on phytosanitary regulations and Council for final approval:
- Sambucus (new)
- Populus and Salix (new)
- Ribes (revised)
The certification schemes for grapevine and strawberry were revised by the Panel and they will be sent for comment to all EPPO member countries. The following standards: certification scheme for Vaccinium, certification scheme for Rubus, soil test for virus-vector nematodes in fruit crops, guidelines on Prunus seed testing could not be finalized. Consequently, it was proposed to organize an additional meeting of the Panel in December (2007-12-11/12) at the EPPO headquarters in Paris.
The Panel was also informed of the latest developments concerning the revision of the EU Council Directive 92/34 on the marketing of fruit plant propagating material and fruit plants intended for fruit production. Although revision has not yet been completed, it is planned that the new Directive will not contain technical details about certification but will make a reference to internationally agreed schemes (such as the EPPO certification schemes).
Warm thanks are due to Petr Kominek and his colleagues for the fine organization of the meeting and the very pleasant visit to the old city of Prague.
