Alexandria, Virginia, USA
September 30, 2010

Source: Newsletter of the American Seed Trade Association

The American Seed Trade Association and several U.S. companies participated in the second Seed Association of the Americas phytosanitary workshop Sept. 22-23 in Montevideo, Uruguay.

Ric Dunkle, ASTA senior director of seed health and trade, and Darrel Maddox, chairman of ASTA's Phytosanitary Committee, worked alongside other seed industry representatives and government officials from the Americas to address challenges with the movement of seed across borders.

Discussion focused on the rapidly increasing international movement of seed throughout the Americas that is outpacing the capacities of the plant protection offices (NPPOs) of many countries in the Americas to meet the industry's needs.

"Quality seed is the basis for successful agricultural economies in the Americas," Dunkle says. "The need to move seed with the proper phystosanitary controls is critical to the industry and must be developed."

The workshop, the second in a series, is designed to bring together industry and regulatory officials from these countries and help build partnerships and strengthen relationships to ultimately harmonize regulatory requirements among the Americas.

"The U.S. seed industry has a good working relationship with the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service and the seed industry in other countries have not had that same close relationship," says Dunkle. "The benefit of developing these relationships is to provide government officials with a better understanding of the seed industry.

"Seed is very different from other agricultural goods. If government officials better understand the real risks associated with the movement of seed, we are more likely to avoid unnecessary rules and regulations that would hinder business, innovation and adoption."

Dunkle explains that some are just beginning to understand that a pest on a plant doesn't necessarily translate to a pest on a seed.

Seed re-export is still a big headache, he says, but there was a great deal of discussion during the workshop and progress is being made.

"When we look at seed trade, we need to have a predictable environment, know what the phytosanitary requirements are for all countries and those requirements need to be harmonized," Dunkle says.

Overall, Dunkle believes the workshop was a success.

"We didn't just go there and talk," he says. "We identified problems and what needs to be done to solve those problems. We and others came home with marching orders and things to do."

Dunkle and others will work to:

• Continue encouraging the International Plant Protection Convention to develop international standards for seed movement.
• Help make sure COSAVE and NAPPO continue to work together to develop regional standards and harmonize phytosanitary requirements among the countries in the Americas.
• Prioritize needs among countries and come together to create a comprehensive phytosanitary database.
• Develop a checklist of the kinds of information the seed industry can provide to help governments with risk assessment.
• Develop a SAA pest list identifying 10-20 pests and then collaborate with SAA governments and industry to get phytosanitary requirements harmonized.
   

Website: http://www.saaseed.org

Published: September 30, 2010