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The document was elaborated by the Commission’s Agricultural Unit with due regard to the proposals submitted the Union States’ experts and authorized authorities.

"As part of the Strategic Directions for Developing the Eurasian Economic Integration, the Heads of the EAEU States have entrusted us with two tasks. Approving the list of agricultural plants is the first stage aimed at identifying the common problem of insufficient supply of seeds. Elaborating the Commission’s recommendations on measures to develop breeding and seed production and overcome dependence on the import of seeds and plant material will be the second important step in implementing this task", noted Artak Kamalyan, EEC Minister in charge of Industry and Agriculture.

The approved list includes a number of agricultural crops. These are sugar beets, oilseeds (sunflower, rapeseed, safflower), cereal crops (corn, winter rye), vegetable crops, melons and gourds, fruit and berry crops, permanent grasses (alfalfa, sainfoin).

Nowadays, more than 90% of the required sugar beet seeds, 60% of sunflower seeds and more than a third of corn and rapeseed seeds are imported to the EAEU market. In 2020, the Eurasian Economic Union States purchased vegetable seeds in third countries to the amount of more than 140 mln dollars as well as planting material for fruit and berry crops to the amount of 64 mln dollars.