Seed World Europe: Reporting From Euroseeds – Day 2 – Seed World

We hope you all had a good evening out in Copenhagen last night. It is a lovely city with beautiful waterways, historical buildings, and modern architecture, world-class restaurants, a vibrant nightlife, and — be careful when crossing the roads — thousands of bikers. 

The trading floor and the exhibition booths are again open from 08.00 and will close for the day at 18.30. If you have some free time in between your other meetings, make sure to check out two Section meetings, and four InnovAction Stage presentations.

The day will start with the Section Potatoes meeting. Petra Jorasch of Euroseeds will give the latest update on where the EU stands on New Genomic Techniques. Max Kardung of Wageningen University will speak about the cost of regulating Plant Breeding Innovation, and the Euroseeds secretariat will give an update on the new EU PRM regulation, with a focus on ‘exchange in kind’.

Throughout the day you will be able to attend 2 sessions of the Euroseeds InnovAction Stage, where in each of the sessions, 2 of the 12 finalists will be presenting their innovations. If you’re interested in the latest innovations in the plant breeding and seed sector, make sure to head towards the specific Innovation Stage, on the Ground Floor of the Tivoli Hotel. The presentations will be held from 09.30-10.30, and from 12.00-13.00.

Later in the morning, you will be able to attend the Section Vegetables and Ornamentals. Francois Laurens, coordinator of the INVITE project will speak about the future of variety testing in Europe, which is followed by a panel debate with Philippe Lesigne of Bayer, and Nuria Urquia Fernandez of the CPVO giving their take on the topic.

From 12.00-13.00 you will be able to attend the Statutory Part of the Euroseeds General Assembly (GA). Please note that this is for Euroseeds members only. The GA will be chaired by Euroseeds President, Mr. Michael Gohn.

After lunch, from 14.00 to 16.00 you will be able to attend the open part of the Euroseeds General Assembly. Catherine Geslain-Lanéelle, Director DG AGRI in the European Commission will give a presentation ‘From Green Deal to a new Vision for European Agriculture’, followed by a presentation by Morten Boje about Danish agriculture and innovations in the field. Afterwards, there will be a panel discussion, including Boje and Lennart Nilsson from COGECA, where the panelists will discuss the status of the EU Green Deal, whether it will proceed, and a new strategic vision for agriculture and food. Yves Madre from FarmEurope will also take part in the panel discussion, focusing more on rural economies and businesses considering his role of CEO at Farm Europe.

Towards the end of the General Assembly, the award for the best student of the 2024 European Plant Breeding Academy of UC Davis will be announced.

And don’t think that after the General Assembly, the day is over! From 16.30 to 17.30 you can attend the Euroseeds 2024 INNOVACTOR ceremony. The jury has judged the innovations of all the 12 finalists, and the winner and two runners-up will be announced. The Ceremony will be moderated by Shawn Brook, President of the Seed World Group.

Seed World Europe will be on the ground covering the event. Come say hi to the Seed World Europe team: Editorial Director Marcel Bruins, Business Director EMEA Ewa Józefowicz Amador, and President Shawn Brook will be conducting interviews and attending sessions.

If you‘d like to learn more about what else is on the program of the Euroseeds congress, please see here: https://euroseedscongress.com/programme/

In case you wish to share your thoughts on social media, and find out what others are saying, make sure to use the hashtag #Euroseeds2024