Certification of Clones

Measures

• 1992‑1994 First submission for certification
• 1995‑2000 Difficulties experienced in the application of EU regulations in Portugal (sanitary requirements versus intravarietal variability)
• Internal grievance procedure before the European Commission came to nothing (and feathers remained unruffled in Brussels).
• Submission to the European Parliament (PLANSEL/Prof. Rosado Fernandes versus EU Commissioner of Agriculture, Commissioner Fischler) is successful.
• 2005: 45 PLANSEL clones are certified. (The difficulty lay in the fact that the evaluation committee of the competent certification authority comprised a majority of representatives from PLANSEL’s competitors – the State grapevine breeders.)

Projects

• 2003: Preparation of 57 certification submissions and dossiers on 28 different grapevine varieties.
• 2006: AGRO 8.2 – Certification, germplasm and precursor material of grapevine clones. Project participants: EAN Oeiras, VITICERT, DGPC and agricultural sciences colleges.

Dissemination measures

• 1998: Workshop: Introduction to the certification of Portuguese grapevine varieties (Caixa Agricola/Montemor)
• 1999: Workshop: The certification of grapevine varieties in Portugal (CAP – Confederation of Portuguese Agriculturalists)

Publications

• Portuguese viticulture 10 years after accession to the EU, João Antero Araujo, Hans Jörg Böhm, Revista do agricultor (CAP) (Agricultural Review), No. 75/76‑95
• Certified grapevine propagation material – research in conjunction with the University of Évora, João Araujo, Hans Jörg Böhm, Vida Rural, No. 24/93 (1993)