The Svalbard Global Seed Vault marked its first 2026 deposit, securing 7,864 seed samples from 10 genebanks across Africa, Asia, Europe and the Americas. First-time contributions came from Guatemala and Niger, alongside the vault’s first-ever olive seeds. The deposit brings the total conserved crop diversity in Svalbard to 1,386,102 samples, strengthening global food security.
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Europe’s contribution was marked by a first: Spain’s University of Córdoba deposited olive seeds in Svalbard, safeguarding cultivated and wild olive diversity for the future.
The Svalbard Global Seed Vault marked its first deposit event of 2026 today. Seeds from two new countries — Guatemala and Niger — were deposited for the first time, and the Seed Vault also received its first-ever deposit of olive seeds. In total, 7,864 seed samples from 10 depositors arrived for long-term safeguarding in the Arctic facility.
This 69th deposit brings the total number of seed samples secured in the Seed Vault to 1,386,102. Located deep inside a rocky mountain on the Norwegian island of Spitsbergen, under permafrost, the facility is managed by the Norwegian Government, the Nordic Genetic Resource Center (NordGen), and the Crop Trust.
The deposit brought together a mix of national genebanks, international research centres, and community-linked collections. Newly backed-up seeds include:
- Cereals and legumes that are staples for millions of people across Africa
- Vegetables central to diets and nutrition worldwide
- Traditional crops and an ancestor of maize from local Indigenous farmers in Guatemala
- Olives, a crop whose fruit and oil have global nutritional, gastronomic, cultural, and economic significance
Historic First
In a milestone for global conservation, the Olive Genebank of the University of Córdoba — part of the International Olive Council’s network of genebanks — brought olive seeds to the Svalbard Global Seed Vault for the first time, according to a press release.
The deposit included wild olive seeds from Spain and seeds from the 50 most important cultivated olive varieties worldwide, representing a significant portion of global cultivated olive diversity. Bringing these seeds to Svalbard was a key outcome of GEN4OLIVE, a European research project led by the University of Córdoba.
“Local olive varieties are endangered by ageing of trees, low profitability of traditional olive groves and the spread of improved varieties that are easier to mechanize. Wild relatives may be even more threatened from rising temperatures and devastating fires in Mediterranean forests,” said Dr. Concepción Muñoz Díez of the University of Córdoba.
New National Genebanks
Two national institutions deposited seeds in Svalbard for the first time, including Guatemala’s national genebank (ICTA). Guatemala contributed 950 samples across 10 species—such as beans, maize, squash, and amaranth—with 12% coming from farmers in the Sierra de los Cuchumatanes via a community seedbank. The deposit also included two teosinte varieties, a wild ancestor of maize native to Guatemala. It was facilitated by FAO Guatemala and supported through the Emergency Reserve for Genebanks, funded by Norway via the BOLD project and jointly established by the Plant Treaty and the Crop Trust.
“The Emergency Reserve for Genebanks enabled us to send our first duplicate to the Svalbard Global Seed Vault,” said Delmy Castillo, researcher at ICTA. “It also helped us renovate our cold storage room, install a temperature and humidity monitoring system, and regenerate 1,000 bean accessions.”
The national genebank of Niger, housed at the Institut National de la Recherche Agronomique du Niger (INRAN), deposited 204 accessions of sorghum, cowpea, groundnut, and pearl millet. This deposit was supported by the Benefit-sharing Fund of the International Treaty on Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture.
“Crop diversity means security, pure and simple,” said Dan-jimo Baïna, genebank manager and researcher at INRAN. “Food security, nutritional security, income security and security for the environment and from the climate — all depend on it.”
The Benefit-sharing Fund of the Plant Treaty supported two additional deposits. Mali’s Institut d’Economie Rurale (IER) shipped seeds of pearl millet, sorghum, and other crops, while ICARDA—a CGIAR center based in Morocco—deposited seeds of Indigenous barley landraces.
Crop Diversity from Around the World
The latest deposit highlighted the global reach of crop conservation, spanning the Americas, Europe, Africa, and Asia.
From Africa, deposits included staple cereals and legumes, along with agroforestry tree diversity conserved through ICRAF, a CGIAR center based in Kenya.
From Asia, the World Vegetable Center backed up 1,651 samples from 95 species and subspecies, including eggplant, peppers, and other vegetables that underpin diets and cuisines worldwide.
From Europe, Germany’s Leibniz Institute of Plant Genetics and Crop Plant Research (IPK) returned with the largest contribution of this cycle — 2,836 samples — including wheat, beans, and other crops. Another German depositor, the Julius Kühn Institute, added a smaller deposit of wild fruits. Spain contributed cereals, vegetables, and legumes, along with olives.
This first deposit of 2026 underscores the importance of a strong global genebank system. Today, we celebrate new crops and new countries joining the Seed Vault family; tomorrow, we must intensify efforts to bring even more crop diversity to Svalbard and safeguard the future of food for all.
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