Phytosanitary regulations and ISF’s Regulated Pest List Initiative
Samantha Thomas: Monsanto
<div>The International Plant Protection Convention adopted a commodity standard on the international movement of seeds in 2017. Its purpose is to facilitate trade by identifying phytosanitary measures that can be applied in a multilateral environment, i.e. across multiple countries. Much of the seed trade today is global with seed moving into and out of several countries for parental line increases or commercial hybrid production. Seed trade is negatively impacted as importing countries often set different import requirements for the same crop species resulting in increasingly complex logistics. To better understand when seed is a pest introduction risk (i.e. when seed can be a means for pathogen movement and disease introduction), the International Seed Federation has done an in-depth data review of scientific literature on pests that are being regulated for seed import. The results of this review for regulated pests of 10 vegetable seed species show that a large percentage of import requirements lack a scientific basis. For regulated pests where seed may be a pathway further detailed information has been compiled. An online database of the literature and information is publicly available to growers, industry participants, as well as government regulators.</div>
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