In August 1997 an ad hoc group of workers interested in carrot held an ad hoc meeting supported by ECPGR, in conjunction with the fifth meeting of the EUCARPIA Carrot Working Group hosted by the Department of Genetics, University of Agriculture, Krakow, Poland.

The discussions led to the realization that within the group and national programmes there was a broader interest in Umbellifers, in addition to carrot. The group decided it would be logical and more efficient to combine all these interests into an Umbellifer Crops Working Group. However, with such a potentially large number of genera within the Umbelliferae, a decision was taken to limit interest and activities to crops and wild taxa within nine genera including Anethum (dill), Apium (celery), Carum (caraway), Chaerophyllum (chervil), Coriandrum (coriander), Daucus (carrot), Foeniculum (fennel), Pastinaca (parsnip) and Petroselinum (parsley).

A proposal to establish a formal Working Group on Umbellifer Crops was accepted by the Steering Committee in July 1998.