In brief

  • Everything a seed producer pays the state goes up by 44.76%, from 27 September 2026. Order no. 261/2026 of the interim Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development replaces the tariff list in force since December 2022 and multiplies almost every item by the same number, 1.4476. Field inspection of one hectare of straw cereals goes from 27.80 to 40.24 lei, and the purity test on one cereal sample from 44.18 to 63.95 lei.
  • The payers are officially registered producers, processors and traders of seed and planting material, plus anyone asking for a laboratory analysis or an accreditation. The money does not go to the state budget: it stays with the territorial inspectorates for seed and planting material quality and with the Central Laboratory for Seed and Planting Material Quality, as own revenue, under Article 21(3) of Law no. 266/2002.
  • The steepest rise is hidden in a footnote. The label printed by the accredited operator itself goes from 0.02 to 0.12 lei apiece, that is six times more. And per-kilogram certification for agricultural plant seed and for potato doubles, from 0.005 to 0.01 lei, because the tariff is now written in whole bani.
Act: Order no. 261/2026 of the interim Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development on setting the tariffs for carrying out tests and controls, certification, registration, supervision, monitoring and accreditation for the production, processing and/or marketing of seed and planting material, as well as the tariffs for carrying out quality tests on seed and planting material
Published: Official Gazette of Romania, Part I, no. 804 of 22 September 2026
In force from: 27 September 2026, 5 days after publication, under Article 4 of the order

The order published on 22 September 2026 changes no rule at all about how seed is produced, inspected or certified. It changes only the price of every operation the state performs for a producer, and it does so with a regularity rarely seen in a tariff act: almost all of the eighty-plus items in the annex are obtained by multiplying the 2022 tariff by 1.4476. The difference from other recent increases in official tariffs is immediately visible. With the sanitary and veterinary tariffs, where the increase reached 75.6% for 44 practices, the percentages differ from one payer to another; here there are no privileged categories, everyone pays exactly the same extra.

The list being replaced is the annex to Order no. 344/2022 of the Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development, published in the Official Gazette of Romania, Part I, no. 1195 of 13 December 2022. Article 3 of the new order repeals it on the date the new order enters into force, that is on 27 September 2026. Three years and nine months passed between the two lists, during which the tariffs did not move at all, and the 2022 order had itself replaced a list from March 2021.

The tariff is fixed on the day the application is accepted, not on the day of the inspection or of the laboratory test. The legal basis for the order, Article 21(2) of Law no. 266/2002, republished, says that the applicant pays for the services when the application is accepted, in accordance with the tariffs set by order of the Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development. For anyone with files to submit in this period, the few days left until 27 September 2026 are worth money.

The tariffs in the annex do not include value added tax, Article 2 says, so the amounts below are to be read as a taxable base, not as the final figure on the invoice.

What it changes in practice

The first effect is arithmetic and shows best on examples. Field inspection of a 100-hectare seed crop of straw cereals cost 2,780 lei under the 2022 list and costs 4,024 lei after 27 September 2026, that is 1,244 lei more. The full accreditation file for a seed testing laboratory, which adds up the check of the application and of the Quality Manual, the practical check of the tests and the check of the management system with an audit report, rises from 6,031.75 to 8,731.56 lei, that is 2,699.81 lei more. The inspection for registering a new economic operator, per site, goes from 430.10 to 622.62 lei.

The second effect hits those who look only at the tariff column. Certifying a 20-tonne lot of agricultural plant seed cost 100 lei, at 0.005 lei per kilogram. It now costs 200 lei, because the tariff has become 0.01 lei per kilogram, and on top of that comes an item that did not exist in 2022: entering the lot for certification, 30.53 lei for each seed lot. The total reaches 230.53 lei, 2.3 times more, in an order that otherwise indexes by 44.76%.

The third effect is indirect and concerns the percentage surcharges applied on top of the tariff. Urgent handling stays at plus 50%, undeclared area stays charged 3 times over, re-inspection stays at plus 50% the first time and plus 100% thereafter, and virus testing of samples received late stays at plus 50%, 100%, 150% and 200%, over the intervals set in the note. The percentages have not changed, but they are now calculated on a base that is 44.76% larger. A cereal purity test under urgent handling cost 66.27 lei and now comes to 95.93 lei. One undeclared hectare of cereals cost 83.40 lei and now comes to 120.72 lei.

The fourth effect is budgetary, and it is not visible in the text. Under Article 21(3) of Law no. 266/2002, republished, the sums collected form own revenue of the territorial inspectorates for seed and planting material quality and of the Central Laboratory for Seed and Planting Material Quality. The increase does not pass through the state budget: it directly finances the network that carries out the inspections and the tests.

What has changed compared with the previous situation

An item-by-item comparison of the 2022 annex with the 2026 one shows a single coefficient, 1.4476, applied from the first chapter to the last. The straw cereals group: 27.80 to 40.24 lei per hectare. Potato: 94.95 to 137.46. Vegetable hybrids: 771.52 to 1,116.85. The inspection for accrediting a person who draws samples: 2,806.85 to 4,063.19. The practical check of laboratory tests: 4,429.10 to 6,411.56. Germination in sugar beet: 59.44 to 86.05. Quantitative determination of the MON 810 element in maize seed: 680.08 to 984.49. Departures from the coefficient do not exceed one ban and come from rounding.

Three tariffs, however, were left untouched. The one for the annual check that the requirements for continuing the activity are still met is still 370.50 lei per authorisation, exactly the 2022 figure; indexed, it would have reached 536.34 lei. Varietal purity is still determined for 1,209.93 lei, instead of 1,751.49. The first check and the monthly check of automatic sampling probes stay at 308.51 lei per device and per species, instead of 446.60. In exchange, the approval and annual monitoring of the same probes rises from 473.90 to 682.70 lei, that is 44.06%, the only figure in the annex that does not close on the general coefficient even after rounding.

The annex also has new items. Chapter I introduces entry for the multiplication of seed crops, covering the check of the documentation, the analysis of the preliminary eligibility conditions and the assignment of the official identity number, 30.53 lei for each multiplication declaration. Chapter V introduces entry of the lot for certification, again 30.53 lei, and the issue of the OECD Certificate for seed lots, 15.62 lei per certificate. The same chapter introduces a new note charging staff travel for field inspection and official sampling at 0.95 lei per kilometre, where the institution’s own car is used.

Two items have disappeared, and one of them leaves a gap. The tariff of 0.11 lei apiece for drafting and printing vignettes without affixing them no longer exists in the 2026 list, even though the notes to Chapter V keep referring to it. Gone as well is the note that increased the tariffs by 100% where additional labels were requested for the same lot, together with the one that increased by 100% the drawing and sealing of a new sample from the same lot, on request.

A few items have widened their coverage without costing more than indexation. The test so far called simply „Dodder” is called in 2026 „Dodder, determination of Aeginetia, Alectra, Orobanche, Phelipanche and Striga species” and costs 97.92 lei, that is exactly the old tariff indexed. The varietal purity test, limited in 2022 to barley and wheat through two separate items, is now a single item with no species named, so the same price applies to any crop. Chapter III gains two new notes: purity for pelleted seed is increased by 100%, and moisture determination by the low constant temperature oven method with 17 hours of drying is increased by 50%.

Advantages and disadvantages

What it improves

  • The coefficient is single and anyone can verify it: divide the new tariff by the 2022 one and 1.4476 comes out on almost any item. In a tariff act, such regularity makes budgeting predictable.
  • The 60% reduction for inspection carried out by an accredited inspector and for sampling carried out by an accredited sampler stays in force and is now worth more in lei, because it applies to a larger base.
  • Nothing moved on three items: the annual check that keeps the authorisation alive, 370.50 lei, varietal purity, 1,209.93 lei, and the first check of automatic sampling probes, 308.51 lei per device and per species.
  • The varietal purity test no longer stops at barley and wheat. At the same price, 1,209.93 lei, it can be requested for any species, which previously had no basis in the tariff list.
  • The inspector’s travel finally has a price written into the annex, 0.95 lei per kilometre, instead of remaining an expense with no item of its own.
  • The chapter structure, the units of measurement and the system of surcharges stay identical, so operators’ contracts and internal procedures do not have to be rewritten, only recalculated.

What remains a problem

  • The increase comes in one go, after three years and nine months of frozen tariffs, and applies 5 days after publication, in the middle of the autumn campaign.
  • The footnotes conceal far bigger rises than the tables. The label printed by the accredited economic operator goes from 0.02 to 0.12 lei, that is six times over, whereas indexation would have taken it to 0.03.
  • Rounding to the ban doubles two per-kilogram tariffs, for agricultural plant seed and for potato, from 0.005 to 0.01 lei, and raises the other two by 40%, from 0.05 to 0.07 lei.
  • Three new payments appear where none existed before: 30.53 lei for each multiplication declaration, 30.53 lei for each lot entered for certification and 0.95 lei per kilometre for the inspector’s travel.
  • The order contains no transitional provision and no correspondence rule for the acts that refer to the repealed order, even though at least one of them does.
  • The reasoning behind the figures is not published. The only factual basis invoked is Report no. 2.103 of 3 August 2026 of the Central Laboratory for Seed and Planting Material Quality, which does not appear in the Official Gazette of Romania (Monitorul Oficial).

Practical advice

  1. If you have files to submit, submit them so that the application is accepted before 27 September 2026. Article 21(2) of Law no. 266/2002, republished, ties payment to the moment the application is accepted, not to the date the inspection or the test actually takes place.
  2. For a quick budget estimate, multiply the tariffs in the 2022 list by 1.4476. Check separately only the items expressed per kilogram and the footnotes, because the coefficient does not hold there.
  3. If you print your own labels, redo the calculation before the next campaign: the tariff goes from 0.02 to 0.12 lei per label. At 100,000 labels a year, the difference is 10,000 lei.
  4. Do not forget the two new entry charges of 30.53 lei each, one for every multiplication declaration and one for every lot entered for certification. They are added to the per-hectare and per-kilogram tariffs, they do not replace them.
  5. If you work with accredited inspectors or samplers, the 60% reduction still applies and becomes more valuable. For field inspection, the reduction covers points 1 to 4 and 6 of Chapter I, so not potato.
  6. Ask in writing for an estimate of the mileage when you request a field inspection or official sampling. Travel is invoiced separately, at 0.95 lei per kilometre, and over long distances it can exceed the tariff for the service itself.
  7. Add value added tax to any amount in the annex. Article 2 says the tariffs do not include it, and the difference changes the budget of a whole campaign.

Frequently asked questions

From when are the new tariffs payable?
From 27 September 2026. Article 4 of the order says the act enters into force within 5 days of publication, and publication took place on 22 September 2026, in the Official Gazette of Romania, Part I, no. 804.
By how much exactly do they rise?
By 44.76% on almost every item. The coefficient applied is 1.4476, and the departures from it, where they occur, come from rounding to two bani or to one ban. Three tariffs were left unchanged, and one hidden in a note has risen sixfold.
Who pays and who collects?
The payers are economic operators registered for producing, processing or marketing seed and planting material, those who request quality tests and those who request accreditation. The money is collected by the territorial inspectorates for seed and planting material quality and by the Central Laboratory for Seed and Planting Material Quality, as own revenue.
What happens to an application filed before 27 September 2026?
The order contains no transitional provision. The applicable rule remains the one in Article 21(2) of Law no. 266/2002, republished: the price of the service is paid when the application is accepted, so what counts is the date on which the application was accepted, not the date on which the inspection or the test takes place.
Which is the biggest increase in the annex?
It is in note 5 to Chapter V, not in the tables: the label drafted and printed by the accredited economic operator goes from 0.02 to 0.12 lei apiece. Indexed with the general coefficient, it would have reached 0.03 lei.
Which tariffs stayed at the 2022 level?
The annual check that the requirements for continuing the activity are still met, 370.50 lei per authorisation. Varietal purity, 1,209.93 lei per test. And the first check, together with the monthly check, of automatic sampling probes, 308.51 lei per device and per species.
Do the tariffs include value added tax?
No. Article 2 of the order says the tariffs set out in the annex do not include value added tax, so the amount in the annex is a taxable base.
What happens to the acts that refer to the repealed order?
Order no. 261/2026 repeals Order no. 344/2022 without providing that references to the latter are to be read as references to the new order. Order no. 500/2023 of the Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development sends importers, for the price of official tests, to Order no. 344/2022 exactly, identified by number.

Errors and inconsistencies in the published text

  • Annex, Chapter V, notes 3 and 5. Both speak of the tariff for „drafting and printing documents, labels and vignettes”, but the table no longer has an item for drafting and printing vignettes without affixing them. Point 9 charges „drafting, printing and affixing vignettes”, 0.21 lei per package, while the separate item of 0.11 lei apiece, which existed at point 7 of the annex to Order no. 344/2022, has disappeared. An operator whose vignettes are drafted and printed by the inspectorate but who affixes them himself has no tariff of his own. On top of that, note 5 sets 0.12 lei „per label” for points 8 and 9, although point 9 is measured per package and concerns vignettes, not labels, so the same operation can be invoiced in two different ways.

Editorial analysis

What we have here is an indexation order dressed up as a tariff order. The proof lies not in what it says but in what comes out of the division: more than eighty items, from five chapters covering things with nothing in common, from the inspection of a hectare of hops to the identification of the DNA of the GA21 line in maize seed, all give the same ratio against 2022, 1.4476. Not a single tariff was recalculated on its real cost. Had it been, it would be impossible for drawing a sample from an ordinary sack and auditing a testing laboratory to rise by exactly the same amount, when one means a few minutes of work and the other a site visit with a team and a report.

The three tariffs left in place confirm the absence of a cost analysis rather than disproving it. The annual check that keeps an authorisation alive still costs 370.50 lei, that is 165.84 lei below the indexed level, while the check of the documentation that precedes it, in the same item of the same table, has risen from 160.02 to 231.65 lei. The result is that, from 27 September 2026, an operator pays for the paperwork check 62% of the price of the annual inspection itself, against 43% before. There is no operational reason why the ratio between two services provided by the same inspectorate should shift by twenty percentage points in an act that justifies nothing.

The one figure that breaks the pattern entirely sits in a footnote and is invisible if you read the tables. The label drafted and printed by the accredited economic operator goes from 0.02 to 0.12 lei. Indexed, it would have reached 0.03 lei, so the note sets four times the level the rest of the annex would have imposed. For an operator printing 100,000 labels a year, that means 12,000 lei instead of 3,000. Together with the rounding that doubles per-kilogram certification for agricultural plants and for potato, from 0.005 to 0.01 lei, and with the two new entry charges, it follows that the small payer, the one working with many lots and many labels, bears an increase well above the 44.76% announced by the rest of the act. A 20-tonne lot of cereal seed costs 230.53 lei instead of 100, that is 2.3 times more.

The final observation concerns the symmetry of the deadlines. The report underlying the order is dated 3 August 2026, the order is signed on 4 September 2026 and published on 22 September 2026. The administration had 50 days between report and publication and 55 until entry into force. Those on the receiving end have 5 days, at a time when the inspection deadline for autumn crops, 1 December, is already in the calendar and multiplication declarations are being filed. Nothing stood in the way of entry into force on 1 January 2027, with a whole campaign priced on a single grid.

What should be changed

  • The order should contain an express transitional provision. Article 21(2) of Law no. 266/2002, republished, settles one-off applications, since it ties payment to acceptance of the application, but it says nothing about continuing services: annual supervision and monitoring, routine label printing, repeated sampling from a lot already in certification. One sentence fixing the grid applicable to these would spare every inspectorate an interpretation of its own.
  • The 0.12 lei per label tariff should be moved out of the note and into the table, as an item with a number of its own. A sixfold increase has no business sitting in a footnote, where it is least likely to be read by whoever pays it, and where it cannot be compared with anything.
  • The item for drafting and printing vignettes without affixing them should be reinstated, or the notes to Chapter V should be cleared of the reference to it. As things stand there is a category of service that the notes talk about and the table does not charge for, and note 5 sets a per-label price for an item measured per package.
  • Per-kilogram tariffs should be expressed with three decimals, as in the 2022 annex. The doubling from 0.005 to 0.01 lei is not a tariff policy decision but an effect of the number format. With three decimals, the indexed value would have been 0.007 lei and the increase would have stayed in line with the rest of the act.
  • The order should provide that references in other legislation to Order no. 344/2022 are to be read as references to it. Order no. 500/2023 of the Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development sends importers, for the price of official tests, to the repealed order, identified by number and year.
  • Entry into force should be aligned with the campaign cycle, not with the minimum 5-day deadline. A fixed date, say 1 January, would mean that the same multiplication and certification campaign is priced on a single grid, instead of being cut in two by a price change arriving in mid-autumn.

Original text of the legal act

The text below is reproduced in Romanian, the official form of publication.

The full text, as published in the Official Gazette of Romania

Official Gazette of Romania no. 804 of 22 September 2026 32 pages PDF, 174 KB the act starts on page 27

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This article is for informational purposes only and does not constitute legal advice. For specific situations, consult a licensed attorney or tax advisor.