Plant varieties sold online cause many consequences

ANTD.VN - According to Mr. Tran Xuan Dinh, General Secretary of the Vietnam Seed Trade Association, plant varieties sold online are not tested for quality and can affect the quality of crops.

Giống cây trồng bán tràn lan trên "chợ mạng"

Plant varieties are widely sold on the "online market"

On the morning of December 26, Vietnam Agriculture Newspaper, Department of Crop Production and Office of the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development jointly organized the Forum "Current status of production, business, registration and self-declaration of circulation of agricultural plant varieties, solutions for effective and sustainable development of Vietnam's plant seed industry".

Speaking at the forum, Mr. Tran Xuan Dinh - General Secretary of the Vietnam Plant Seed Trade Association said that the trend of trading plant seeds online is inevitable but brings many consequences and implications.

Some individuals and fraudulent groups have organized the introduction and advertisement on social networks such as Facebook, Zalo, TikTok... of new plant varieties with large fruits, beautiful and attractive colors, and delivered to farmers' homes.

Best-selling rice varieties, good varieties favored by farmers, big brands: ThaiBinh Seed, Vinaseed... are impersonated by subjects, selling fake varieties online, selling in a "multi-level" style.

"Most of the farmers in remote areas, areas where the retail and distribution systems of companies have not reached, become victims," said Mr. Tran Xuan Dinh.

According to Mr. Tran Xuan Dinh, seed production and trading is a conditional business, which is strictly regulated in legal documents and legal guidelines; however, online sales do not have specific regulations and sanctions, which is a loophole and difficulty for the management of plant varieties in particular and many other commercial activities in general.

Talking about the limitations, challenges and opportunities of Vietnam's agricultural seed industry, Mr. Tran Xuan Dinh said that Vietnam's weakest link in the seed industry is vegetable and flower seeds.

Currently, we have to import about 90% of this type of seeds with a value of several tens of millions of USD, although we have climate zones (Northern highlands, Da Lat) that can produce seeds of sub-temperate vegetables.

In addition, legal regulations still have some shortcomings, cumbersome procedures, legal guidance documents are slow to be issued and some are contradictory... The unevenness of production and supply systems between regions, the number of enterprises participating in the seed industry is quite large but not really strong.

The Mekong Delta is a rice and fruit production granary, but there are very few large, potential seed production companies. Rice is the main variety, but over 25% of farmers still use "uncertified" seeds.

Therefore, the representative of the Vietnam Plant Seed Trade Association recommends: Amending the Law on Cultivation and guiding decrees and circulars to make it more feasible and practical to avoid conflicts between laws; having documents to resolve problems regarding self-declared names of varieties in circulation with a series of vegetable and flower varieties that some units have reported, including cases where names or trademarks have been protected but were "snatched" by the previous registered unit.

At the same time, it is recommended to quickly amend TCVN on corn variety testing as proposed in Official Dispatch No. 22 (dated December 6, 2023) of the Vietnam Seed Trade Association.

Mr. Nguyen Nhu Cuong - Director of the Department of Crop Production (Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development) said that after the Law on Crop Production was issued, we have had clear changes. In particular, for plant varieties that are not major crop species, organizations and individuals self-declare circulation. This is a very important change, but this is also an issue that many individuals and businesses have not yet adapted to.

In such a transition, the State management agency also did not foresee the changes.

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