Purpose. To define statistical methods and tools (application packages) for creating the decision support system (DSS) for qualifying examination of plant varieties suitable for dissemination (VSD) in the context of data processing tasks. To substantiate the selection of software for proces­sing statistical data relative to field and laboratory investigations that are included into the qualifying examination for VSD. Methods. Analytical one based on the comparison of methods of descriptive and multivariate statistics and tools of intellectual analysis of data obtained during qualifying examination for VSD. Comparative analysis of software tools for processing statistical data in order to prepare proposals for the final decision on plant variety application. Decomposition of tasks was carried out which were included into the decision support system for qualifying examination of varieties-candidates for VSD. Results. Statistical package SPSS, analysis package included in MS Excel and programe language R was compared for the following criteria: interface usability, functionality, quality of calculation result presentation, visibility of graphical information, software cost. The both packages were widely used in the world for statistical data processing, they have similar functions for statistics calculation. Conclusion. Tasks of VSD were separated and recommended to tackle using investigated tools. Programe language R was a product recommended to use as a tool. The main advantage of R as compared to the package IBM SPSS Statistics is the fact that R is an open source software.