Nébih informs you about the fruit nursery license required for the production and distribution of strawberry seedlings

(Photo: PIxabay)

According to the decree2 related to the activity, fruit propagating material can only be produced for the purpose of placing it on the market in a fruit nursery licensed by the government office in charge of plant cultivation.

The strawberry (Fragaria L.) is a fruit species that falls under the scope of this decree2, according to which:
(1) The condition and management of the plantation and the individual must be suitable to ensure the production of propagating material of the required quality.
(2) The plants of the main plantations may only be used for the production of propagating material if they have the Nébih certificate and have met the requirements during an annual certification inspection. The C.A.C. plantation plants must have a valid official inspection certificate issued for the given year.
(3) A record must be kept of the stock of the stock plantations – according to the form regularized by Nébih. The certificate is only valid together with the registration sheet and the inspection report for the given year.
(4) An up-to-date register based on inspection reports and certificates of origin must be kept on the propagating materials produced on the stock plantations, as well as their use.
Compliance with the legislation related to the production and marketing of fruit propagating and planting material is regularly checked by the inspectors of the government office (based on the provisions of the decree3).

In the case of all fruit species during nursery production, a declaration must be made regarding the legal use of the varieties included in the propagation

In the case of strawberries, special attention must also be paid to this because of the large number of varieties in cultivation protected by European variety protection (that is, they can only be propagated with the permission of the owner of the protection). The application for the license and the accompanying documents can be submitted by post to the seed and propagating material supervision department of the agricultural department of the relevant county government office, or electronically on the epapir.gov.hu interface.

The form required for the application can be downloaded from the Nébih website. If necessary, additional information can be requested from the regionally competent propagating material inspector listed on the form at the telephone numbers provided. In the case of growing or placing on the market propagating material without a permit, a quality protection fine can be imposed based on the relevant decree4.

Nébih also draws attention to the fact that the offer for sale, regardless of the online interface, is considered a distribution activity in itself. The authority pays particular attention to and investigates all advertisements and other activities offering fruit propagating material. Specialists will continue to carry out inspections in this direction in order to filter out distributors of propagating material operating illegally.

Nébih