• Classification of harmful organisms
     • Information files on diseases and pests
     • Main detection technics for the different
         harmfull organisms


The certification of seed potatoes is based on the general technical regulations and the additional technical regulation for growing, inspecting and certifying seeds laid down by the Ministry of Agriculture. These regulations include the European Directives on trading (66/403/EEC) and plant health (2000/29/EEC).

Regulations are laid down, in particular, for the propagation of the crops (establishments admitted to control, genealogical scheme, isolation, etc.), seed storage (storage conditions), scoring the crop (field standards) and the batch (batch standards). The main criteria for seed potato production are identity, variety purity and health status.

The health status of the seed potatoes is one of the major factors in certification and this has led to the creation of practical technical information files that are available on this site. These files enable you to be up-dated on the diseases and pests covered by the inspection and also on other pests which are not yet regulated.
Pests and diseases are classified as follows:

• May be tolerated: classification in the group of quality organisms;
• Must not be tolerated: this group contains organisms which lead to quarantine.

Inspections (see the "French seed potato standards" table) are carried out for each pest or disease at each stage of the genealogical scheme for the production of seed potatoes. However, other non-regulated pests and diseases may also be taken into account if, for example, they could damage the ability of the seed potatoes to sprout.