Seed law
in the EU
Variety registration, the conservation variety exemption, and where small seed businesses actually operate.
Selling seed in the EU
Seed is one of the more heavily regulated things you can sell, and the rules differ sharply between selling to home gardeners and selling to commercial growers.
Variety registration
To market seed of a vegetable variety commercially in the EU, the variety generally must be registered on a national list or the EU common catalogue. Registration requires distinctness, uniformity and stability testing, which costs money and favours genetically uniform varieties over genuinely diverse heirlooms.
The conservation variety exemption
Directive 2008/62/EC created a lighter path for conservation varieties — landraces and heirlooms threatened by genetic erosion. Registration is simpler and regional, but quantities are limited and sale is restricted to the variety's region of origin.
What this means in practice
Small seed businesses operate in the space between: selling unregistered seed for growing and saving rather than as certified commercial seed, selling within amateur channels, and using conservation variety provisions where they fit. It is a genuinely awkward area of law and it varies by member state.
What we do
We sell open-pollinated seed for growing. We do not claim certified status, we do not present varieties as registered for commercial agricultural use, and we publish the provenance of every lot. If you intend to resell seed commercially, take your own legal advice for your jurisdiction.