Importing seeds into France

What are French requirements to import seed from third countries?

Varieties of EU/FR listed species must be registered on the French or EU catalogues. For agricultural plant species, seeds must be certified in accordance with the OECD seed schemes’ system and comply with EU norms and rules. Seeds of agricultural species can only be imported from a country for which equivalence has been recognised by the EU (2003/17/EC: Council Decision of 16 December 2002 on the equivalence of field inspections carried out in third countries on seed-producing crops and on the equivalence of seed produced in third countries).

For treated seeds, the treatment used must be approved by France or by at least one other EU Member State.

For a number of seed species and propagating material from third countries, a declaration of import is to be submitted to customs. This import declaration (DI) shall be endorsed by SEMAE (formerly GNIS) beforehand (semaeimpex@semae.fr).

If you have any additional questions, please contact our international relations department: international@semae.fr

Header photo : © SEMAE / Jerry Fromont