Japan’s Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries announced on April 9 that 1,975 varieties of seeds are prohibited from being taken out of Japan, and that individuals who violate the rules will be punished with up to 10 years in prison or a fine of up to 10 million yen (about 600,000 yuan).
According to Kyodo News on April 9, Japan’s revised “Seedling Law” came into effect on April 1, which prohibits the illegal export of seeds and seedlings of domestically developed brand-name fruits and other trees.
The Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries (MAFF) announced for the first time on the 9th that the target species prohibited from being taken out of the country, mainly rice and fruits registered by the “Comprehensive Research Institute of Agriculture and Food Industry Technology” (ARIAT) and 42 prefectures, including lettuce “Shinano Hope” from Nagano Prefecture These include 1,702 registered varieties, such as Nagano’s lettuce “Shinano Hope” and Tottori’s pear “Akikanzumi,” and 273 varieties that are currently under application for registration. In the future, there will be additional registered varieties of private companies.
The report said that if you violate the ban, the individual will be punished by up to 10 years in prison or a fine of up to 10 million yen, the corporate entity will be punished by a fine of up to 300 million yen.
Commentator Wen Xiaogang believes that this move is likely to be mainly aimed at the Chinese Communist Party. Because the Chinese Communist Party issued a document in February this year, said to fight a good seed industry “turnaround”. And in December last year, Xi Jinping held in Beijing at the Central Economic Work Conference stressed the need to “carry out seeds ‘neck’ technology research”. Seeds have become a major dilemma for Chinese agriculture. This time, perhaps Japan may not be explicitly targeting China, but objectively it does play a role in “necking” the seeds that China needs.
According to the China Seed Trade Association (CNSTA) released the “2019 China Crop Seed Import and Export Trade Information Analysis” shows that from 2014 to 2019, seed imports of 66,000 tons, exports of 25,100 tons, China’s dependence on “foreign seeds” of 72%.
The corn grown in the Yellow and Huaihai regions of the mainland is mainly the U.S. Pioneer’s “Centaur 355” variety, and the corn seeds grown in the northern northeast are mainly imported from Germany.
According to the China Seed Trade Association, China imported $224 million of vegetable seeds in 2019, accounting for more than half of the total crop seed imports ($435 million). That is, “foreign seeds” basically covers all varieties.
Keshan County, Qiqihar City, Heilongjiang Province, the home of China’s potatoes, most of the potatoes grown in recent years are from the United States, planting an area of 30,000 mu, accounting for half of the county’s planting area. In Shandong Shouguang, the hometown of vegetables in China, the share of foreign seeds was once as high as 80%, and is still as much as 30%. Most of the white radish seeds are imported from South Korea, pepper, from Israel, sugar beet and rye grass seeds foreign dependence of more than 95%. Broccoli domestic seeds accounted for only 5%, the other is mostly from Japan.
Not only the problem of agricultural seeds, but also the mainland’s poultry and livestock rely heavily on imports.
Before 1994, local pigs accounted for more than 90% of China’s market share, but by 2007, that figure had slipped to 2%. Introduced breeding stock includes Duroc pigs from the US, Long White pigs from Denmark and York pigs from the UK. According to Brake Agricultural Data, the total number of Chinese breeding pigs imported in 2020 exceeded 20,000, a record high.
In 2014, Xu Kuangdi, a member of the Chinese Academy of Engineering, also said that 99% of the Peking duck today is made from British Cherry Valley duck.
Faced with the reality of seeds being “stuck”, commentator Shi Shan said that one of the methods the Chinese Communist Party is taking is to steal and cheat from foreign countries. For example, more than 70 percent of Taiwan’s vegetable and fruit seeds are said to have been transferred to mainland China. Similarly, China has never stopped stealing seeds from the United States, Japan and other places.
Shi Shan believes that the Chinese Communist Party is now facing a seed crisis, and once the seed supply chain is broken, the survival of the entire race may be at stake.
Recent Comments