June 10, 2009
At its yearly congress in
Angers (France), the new elected Europatat president Kees van Arendonk
(Netherlands) has presented the proposal of the Europatat 2010 working group
to invest in a stronger secretariat in order to strengthen the voice of the
European seed and ware potato trade in Brussels. This is considered a
necessity as most of the legislation the sector has to cope with is
currently made in Brussels. As different issues such as the revision of the
plant health policy and the availability of plant protection products, or
sustainability and the agricultural policy have a large impact on the potato
sector, it is considered essential for trade companies and their national
associations to have more intensive interaction on European level. The “Europatat
2010 project”, which aspires to increase the budget and professionalise the
work of the European union of the potato trade, will be worked out in the
coming months, in order to be presented and approved at the next Europatat
congress in May 2010 in Edinburgh (UK).
Kees van Arendonk, the new
elected president of Europatat, emphasised the role of his predecessor Joop
Stet in this process, referring to his work during the last 6 years,
together with the secretariat, to be more involved in the European policy.
The CELCAA membership enabled Europatat to be represented in a number of
European advisory committees and to collaborate with colleague European
associations on a number of issues. He referred also to Joop Stet as the
driving force behind the trade relations with Mediterranean countries, the
reorganisation of the European RUCIP secretariat and the participation of
Europatat in the activities of the UNECE standardisation committees.
Also the fact that the
revised Europatat statutes enable private companies to become member in case
of absence of national associations, has been considered the first step to
enable individual companies to become direct member . This would allow
Europatat to increase the budget but also to create a quicker interaction
between its secretariat and the companies. This direct membership will also
enable companies active in Central European countries, where in many case
national trade associations are not existing , to participate in the work of
Europatat. This way Europatat aims to cover the full EU 27 in its positions
and policy.
On the other hand Kees van
Arendonk expressed clearly the specific role of the national associations in
the ‘new’ Europatat. When Europatat wants to be pro active in order to
defend the interest of the seed and ware potato trade, the interaction
between the European and national level is essential. He promised that the
working group would emphasise the balance between individual and association
membership in its final proposal. “A stronger Europatat has to result into
stronger national potato trade associations,” he stated.
Apart from Kees van
Arendonk as president, also Colin Herron (UK) – vice president, Romain Cools
(B) – secretary general and Jan Gottschall (NL) – assistant secretary
general, have been elected in Angers for a two years mandate.
Seed and consumption
potato commissions
The seed commission
discussed a number of issues such as the permission to use mineral oils in
the seed potato production, the revision of the directive 91/414 for the
seed potato sector, the use of certified seed in the Globalgap scheme, the
upcoming revision of the legal framework for quarantine diseases and the
directive on the propagation material as well as the commercial relations
with Russia for the seed potato sector.
Joop Stet reported on the
UNECE workshop in Cairo (Egypt) and Gerard Backx on the recent mission of
the European commissioner Fischer Boel to Shanghai (China).
The commission for early
and ware potatoes focused on the sustainability issue, with the upcoming
French CO2 labelling and the European Sustainable
Consumption and Production round table as well as on the current early
potato market season.
Revision of the RUCIP
2006
The RUCIP rules, expertise
and arbitration system is currently under revision by a RUCIP commission.
Europatat wants to present a proposal to the European RUCIP committee to
adapt these rules for the European potato trade to the current trade
practices.
Europatat workshop
The traditional Europatat
‘open’ workshop, which had been organised together with the French hosting
association Fedepom, focused on the variety registration and intellectual
property and the usage of farm saved seed (Angers is hosting the European
plant variety registration offices), the revision of the European plant
health policy, the need for generic promotion for potatoes and the actual
issue of credit assurance.
The presentations of this
workshop will be made available on the Europatat website www.europatat.eu.
The British Potato Trade
Association (BPTA) will host the next Europatat congress in Edinburgh
(Scotland) from 27 till 29 May 2010.
More
Information on Europatat on PotatoPro