The Agriculture Department plans to encourage seed producers to focus more on research and development and international standards to promote the industry as a seed hub of Asean.
The department will accelerate the establishment of a lab to ensure the inspection system meets ISO/IEC standards for quality control of commercial seeds.
Vicha Thitiprasert, director of the Agricultural Regulations office, said yesterday the office would also ask for technicians from the International Seed Testing Association to certify Thai labs.
"The endorsement will strengthen the country's export competitiveness against rivals like Japan, China, Australia and New Zealand," he said.
The country's total seed exports have reached Bt2.22 billion or 11,995 tonnes during the first eight months of this year, compared to Bt2.54 billion or 20,934 tonnes for all of last year.
The major export markets are Vietnam, the Philippines and India.
However, imports of controlled seeds would reach 6,794 tonnes worth Bt647.44 million this year.
The import of 37 kinds of seeds needs the permission of the department. They include white paddy rice, sorghum, maize, green bean, soybean, cotton, chilli, tomato, long green bean, green egg plant, pumpkin, sunflower, onion, lettuce and palm oil seeds.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment