Serbia’s new Law on Seed and Propagating Material of Agricultural and Ornamental Plants, in force since 31 October 2025, harmonizes local regulations with EU standards to ensure higher quality and safer seeds. It consolidates and repeals previous laws including the Law on Seed, Law on Seed and Propagating Material, and Law on Propagating Material of Fruit Trees, Grapevines and Hops.

Key provisions of the law include:

• Scope of regulation: The law governs production, processing, packaging, labelling, marketing, post control testing, and import of seed and propagating material of agricultural and ornamental plants.
• Unified E-Register: The law establishes a central electronic register maintained by the Serbian Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Water Management. Registration is mandatory for most professional producers, processors, traders, and importers, with exemptions for certain retail operators and small-scale producers.
• Seed categories: The law aligns seed categories with EU practice, defining pre basic, basic, certified (C1 and C2), standard, and commercial seed, while leaving ornamental plant seed uncategorised.
• Certification rules: The law sets detailed rules for certification, including verification of varietal identity and quality by competent authorities and accredited laboratories. Unregistered varieties can be produced for foreign customers if a contract is signed, prior approval obtained from the Ministry and the entire quantity produced exported.
• Local market and small producers: The law introduces new terms - “local market” refers to the municipality of production and adjacent areas, while “small producer” is an entrepreneur who sells propagating material directly to final consumers in a local market.
• Exemptions: Certain provisions do not apply to small producers, creating a more lenient regime for local market activities. The law also excludes seed and propagating material used for research, experimentation, variety registration, gene banks, export, and traditional old varieties grown in specific areas.
• Oversight system: The law introduces supervision across all stages of seed and propagating material production and marketing, including inspections of registered entities. It also mandates compliance with specific quality, packaging, and labelling rules. It prescribes substantial fines and possible bans for serious infringements, while granting existing registrants a one year grace period to align their status with the new regulations by filing a continuation declaration free of charge.

A transitional period of three years from the date of entry into force of the law is provided in order to give all affected entities enough time to fully comply with new requirements.