SEMAE hosted a delegation of the Japanese Ministry of Agriculture and Food during its visit of the French seed sector
January 11, 2019
The International relations department of SEMAE (formerly GNIS) had the pleasure of welcoming the Japanese delegation from 9th till 11th January.
The main objectives of this visit are to study overview of global seed industry and entire seed industry policy in France.
9th January
They met Christian HUYGHE, Deputy Scientific Director of the French National Research Institute for Agriculture, Food and Environment (INRAE), who has presented the institute and the public research policy on plant breeding innovation.
10th January
At the beginning, the organisation of French interprofessionnal organisation for seeds (SEMAE) was presented by Mr CONSTANT, who is in charge of the small grain cereals section. Then, a short presentation about key figures of the French seed industry was also mentioned by Mrs PETEL. The purpose of these presentations was to show which role SEMAE has with all stakeholders and the importance of the French seed sector all around the world.
Of course, the all trade of French seed couldn’t work without a French policy, managed by the Ministry of Agriculture and Food. That’s why, we have introduced the second part of the day with this main subject.
Mr LECRIVAIN, from SICASOV, has explained the role of his agency. Lastly, the intellectual property rights was outlined by Mr BURGAUD, International and Public Affair Manager of SEMAE.
Mr Hirotaka MATSUDA, Associate Professor, Department of Agriculture Innovation, Tokyo University of Agriculture &
Mr Akira NAGATA, General Manager, Innovation Division, Japan Association for Techno-innovation in Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries
11th January
The third day was devoted to a visit to a French seed company, exporting worldwide and which has a head office in Japan as well. It was very interesting to see how seed companies work, e.g. the different areas of production, the pathology laboratory, greenhouses…
At the end of the day, before the Japanese delegation left, Mrs MERESSE has presented INOV, National Office for Plant Breeder’s Rights.
These three days were extremely rich in information and exchanges about the seed sector with an overview of the different organisations.