On 22 and 23 August Mr. Giacomo Guala Policy Advisor at COPA COGECA Wine Working Party spent some hours with the Nurserymen Italian Associations: Associazione Vivaisti Viticoli Friuli-Venezia Giulia and MIVA. He was on his way back to Brussels and stopped in Italy for visiting some nurseries of Veneto and Friuli Venezia Giulia Regions that are the most productive as for propagating material of vine.
Together with representatives of the two Associations, IRV-CIP President Franz Backknecht and General Secretary Mario Pecile attended the visit as well. On 23 in the morning the rootstock and graft stock nurseries of basic category of clones of private and public breeders were shown in Oppeano (Verona) on the premises of Mr. Silvano Sommadossi nursery. Later in Rauscedo a visit was paid to the laboratories of the Vivai Cooperativi Rauscedo Research Center, the microvinification area and the screen house for the clones preservation.
Last visit took place at the nursery of Mr. Claudio Lenarduzzi in Pozzo- S.Giorgio della Richinvelda. The nurseryman showed the equipment for cutting grafs, and for termotherapy and described the informatized process for the tracebility of the grafts from the field to the client.
Some time was also reserved for presenting to Mr. Giacomo Guala the opinion of nurserymen on some topics of the legislation and their requests. In particular the fight to Flavescence dorée that becomes more and more difficult due to a steady reduction of effective active principles that are not replaced by active principles with the same efficacy.
Due to the limited acreage devoted to production of propagating material, if compared with the EU vineyard, it would be desirable to authorize again some very effective active principles, currently withdrawn from the market.
Moreover as for Flavescence dorée the EU legislation is focused on the nurserymen activity, while it should be addressed to the growers that are the main responsible for spreading the disease.
Even some contents of the proposal for Regulation on plant reproductive material have been discussed in particular the need to clarify the phytosanitary requirements of the propagating material (especially of standard category) as for the meaning of quality pests and the zero level for RNQPs.
The proposal is very complex, it replaces 10 directives and needs time for a thorough examination, but anyway IRV-CIP will supply very soon its opinion to COPA COGECA. Favourable comments were made on the published proposal for a EU regulation on New Genomic Techniques that ends the ban to the use of such techniques and opens the way to a new possibilities to create vine resistant varieties.
At the end either Mr. Giacomo Guala, the President Bachkknecht and the representatives of the two Italian nurserymen associations expressed their satisfaction for the results of the visit that has allowed to improve the information on the sector and to show the reality of the process of production of the propagating material of vine.
