New sugarcane varieties largely help to improve farming systems. To that end, CIRAD can supply its partners with germplasm for varietal improvement purposes, or new high-yielding varieties for industrial crops. However, as sugarcane is propagated by cuttings, there are major risks of propagating pathogens and pests. Visacane, the CIRAD sugarcane quarantine unit, offers a comprehensive service guaranteeing the disease-free status of the planting material supplied, and the respect of plant breeders' intellectual property rights. Visacane is located at CIRAD in Montpellier (France), outside any sugarcane production area, and is part of a plant pathology research unit. Each year, Visacane imports sugarcane varieties from different breeding centres worldwide. Planting material remains under observation for at least two one-year cycles in a quarantine glasshouse guaranteeing that the observations are reliable, and major disease detection tests are performed depending on the origin of the variety. After quarantining, the varieties are offered to Visacane partners, with a disease-free status. Over the last 10 years, Visacane has imported 1033 varieties from 16 producing countries and exported more than 7200 batches of cuttings of disease-free varieties to sugar estates and breeding centres worldwide. During the 2006-2015 period, major sugarcane diseases were detected in 22% of the material, including 17% yellow leaf, 5% ratoon stunt, leaf scald in 2 clones and streak mosaic in 1 clone. Recently, a new sugarcane mastrevirus was discovered and screening for this virus will be integrated in the quarantine process.