Maritime pine is a major species in Europe, especially in France, Portugal and Spain. This species has long been subjected to advanced forestry and genetic breeding since the early sixties in France. However there are strong limitations to improvement progress, i.e. quite long generation time, high genetic load as well as high genetic redundancy within breeding population. Sudden and drastic socio-economic and environmental changes in recent years would need a significant paradigm shift in current breeding technology to deliver suitable tested tree varieties in plantation forestry, i.e. multi-varietal forestry targeting a wide range of end-products through various silvicultural regimes. Field comparison of vegetative propagules is a key towards individual selection and efficient capture of the best genetic stocks. Highly efficient clonal propagation technology is also required for scaling up production of improved varieties. Somatic embryogenesis is considered as the key technology to fulfil such requirements in maritime pine. The species is characterized by increased recalcitrance to vegetative propagation through conventional cuttings as trees are reaching their adult vegetative or reproductive phase. Somatic embryogenesis initiation from mature trees is still challenging in conifers. Therefore the approach developed in Maritime pine is the postponed propagation of tested trees combining somatic embryogenesis initiation from immature zygotic embryos and stable cryopreservation of juvenile embryogenic tissue. This review describes the most recent achievements and challenges towards efficient somatic embryogenesis as a key technology for multi-varietal forestry in Maritime pine.