Chinese Govt Strengthening the Supervision over Seed Production

In Aug. 2013, the Seed Bureau under the Ministry of Agriculture released the list of certificated national seed production bases in China, covering 31 cities or counties for hybrid rice seed production and 26 ones for hybrid corn seed production.

On one hand, the government shall crack down upon the circulation of counterfeiting seeds by supervising the seed production in major bases. On the other hand, the production scale and technology in major bases will be further improved, in order to supply more high-quality seeds to promote agricultural development.

All the time, China's seed industry teems with fake-licensed or inferior seeds. Mainly owing to the inadequate supervision on seed production or the inefficient protection for crop varieties, a large quantity of counterfeiting seeds have flooded into the market from seed production bases. The illegal production of corn seeds is particularly serious in regions in west China like Gansu and Xinjiang, mainly for the high profits from hybrid corn seeds. The deluge of fake-licensed seeds has exacerbated the excess supply of hybrid seeds in the market, along with the unreasonable production of similar seeds by domestic seed companies. Therefore, it is rather crucial for the Chinese government to strengthen the control over seed production.

By Cherry Chen, a Marketing Specialist at CCM International Limited