U.S. e-commerce giant Amazon.com Inc. says it has banned the sale of seeds and plants from overseas to the U.S. The ban comes after thousands of Americans, as well as a number of other countries, received “unsolicited” seed parcels, mostly with postal labels from China. The ban comes after tens of thousands of Americans, as well as several other countries, received “unsolicited” seed parcels, most of them with postal labels from China.
By the end of July, the USDA had identified more than 10 types of plants from these unidentified packages, including flowering plant seeds such as morning glory and hibiscus, as well as vegetable seeds such as cabbage, mint, sage and mustard. The USDA warns the public not to plant these seeds because they may be invasive plant species that can damage the environment, displace or destroy native plants and insects, and can severely damage U.S. crops.
The Wall Street Journal reports that Amazon has notified foreign companies that it will not allow consignment of plants and seeds to the U.S. starting Sept. 3, the same day it removed some foreign merchants selling seeds to the U.S. from its e-commerce site and updated its terms and conditions.
Amazon said that if a foreign seller sells seeds directly to U.S. customers by mail, Amazon will delete the seller’s account. For foreign sellers who rely on Amazon to sell plants or seeds, or whose goods are already stored in Amazon warehouses, Amazon will remove their merchandise from the Amazon e-commerce site as of Sept. 30.
Amazon says it will only allow U.S.-based merchants to sell seeds on its site from now on.
Osama El-Lissy, deputy director of the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service, said last week that the USDA has received nearly 20,000 reports of seed parcels in the mail and has recovered about 9,000 bags of seed parcels. The Ministry of Agriculture has now checked 2,500 of those parcels.
The USDA has identified a number of noxious weeds in the packages, including dodder, dodder dodder, water spinach, plant diseases of the tuber virus genus, and a few pests such as larvae of a wasp and larvae of a leaf beetle, Ehlis said. USDA officials say they have not found any serious seeds yet, but they are monitoring the situation closely and strengthening measures to prepare for possible damage to U.S. plants and crops.
None of the U.S. residents who received the packets had ordered any seeds by mail, and most of the labels on such packets indicated items such as earrings and toys. Similar situations have arisen in Canada and the United Kingdom.
The USDA has partnered with several major e-commerce companies to use their platforms to intercept future shipments of these suspicious packages.
Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin stressed on July 28 that China Post is strictly prohibited from accepting and shipping seed items, and said that the China Post face sheet on the parcel in question was a forgery, with many errors in its layout and information, and that China Post had discussed with the U.S. Postal Service to return the fake parcel to China for investigation.
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