10,000 TONNES OF ‘ROTTEN POTATOES’ BANNED ENTRY INTO JORDANIAN MARKET The Jordanian Ministry of Agriculture said a shipment at Aqaba Port carrying 10,000 tonnes of allegedly worm-infested potatoes will not be allowed into the country. The potatoes appeared to be infested with the potato cyst nematode, which is a soil worm that lives on the roots of some crops, according to the President of the Jordan Farmers Union, Mahmoud Oran, who added the shipment arrived to Jordan from Lebanon, but its original provenance is Syria. Oran expressed fears the pest will infect the country’s soil. “The ministry reassured us and promised that the shipment will not be allowed into the country,” Oran said. He underlined the infested potatoes did not reach the local market, highlighting that any rotten potatoes occasionally found in the local market are due to “bad storage conditions, where humidity levels are higher than permitted.” Oran said Jordan and Lebanon signed an agreement last month, under which Lebanon is allowed to export potatoes to Jordan between Oct. 15 and Nov. 15. According to Oran, the ministry has allowed the import of potatoes from the West Bank because of the low quality of certain potato shipments coming from Lebanon, which actually originate from farms in Syria. Ministry spokesperson Nimer Haddadin explained the owner of the shipment did not obtain an importing licence from officials and that the potatoes have not been tested at the ministry’s labs. He added that as long as the importer does not have an importing licence, the shipment will not be  allowed into the country. “Additionally, any food shipment found carrying diseases, not matching the import standards or originating from a country that is not internationally approved to be disease-free, will not enter the Kingdom, stressed Haddadin. The official added they rejected a potato shipment of 300 tonnes late last week for not adhering to the ministry’s standards. He noted the ministry opened the door for importing potatoes from the West Bank to ensure sufficient supply of the Kingdom’s basic commodity. “When production of potato starts in December, the min- istry will stop its import, since the country becomes self-suf- ficient,” Haddadin said, noting the local market’s daily potato need  stands at 400 tonnes. EXTRAS CFIA TIGHTENS REGULATION OF MICRONUTRIENT FERTILIZERS The Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) is re-establishing tolerance levels for micronutrient fertilizers. The tolerances will be phased in over the next two years. Micronutrients are plant nutrients that are required in small amounts. A lack of micronutrients can negatively affect plant growth and crop yield. However, too many micronutrients can also have adverse effects on animals, plants and the environ- ment. To mitigate the risks of over-application, the CFIA regu- lates micronutrient fertilizers. The tolerances will provide clarity for the regulated parties, facilitate compliance verification and enforcement and improve compliance rates in the marketplace, CFIA said. MARIBOHILLESHÖG – THE NEW NAME IN SUGAR BEET Syngenta’s sugar beet seed business is now part of the DLF Group’s seed activities. DLF took over the sugar beet activities on 1 October, 2017 and have welcomed more than 300 dedi- cated employees to MariboHilleshög, which is the new name for the Group’s stand-alone and focused business unit selling sugar beet seed to more than 30 countries. MariboHilleshög combines the two strong sugar beet brands, Maribo and Hilleshög, which will be widely marketed. “With this acquisition, we are consolidating our strategic platform, where we consider sugar beet to be a fine match with our product portfolio,” says Truels Damsgaard, CEO of DLF. “Sugar beet is a high-value crop with a high-technology con- tent, which allows DLF to add competitive power to the value chain from plant breeding to production, marketing and sales.” The traditional sugar beet breeding activities are cen- tred in MariboHilleshög Research AB in Landskrona, Sweden, where we have the infrastructure and staff to enhance and develop seed technology and plant breeding. This includes development work for the North American market. The applied biotechnological work will be incorporated at existing DLF competence centres. DUPONT PIONEER AND BROAD INSTITUTE OF MIT & HARVARD JOIN FORCES TO ENABLE DEMOCRATIC ACCESS TO CRISPR LICENSING IN AGRICULTURE DuPont Pioneer and the Broad Institute of MIT & Harvard announced 19 October that they have reached an agreement to jointly provide non-exclusive licenses to foundational CRISPR- Cas9 intellectual property under their respective control for use in commercial agricultural research and product devel- opment. These two major CRISPR-Cas9 license holders are coming together with the shared goal of enabling all entities wanting to apply the technology for agricultural applications with a full range of CRISPR-Cas9 tools. Such foundational intellectual property (IP) for CRISPR-Cas9 technology will be freely available to universities and nonprofit organiza- tions for academic research. Pioneer is a business unit of the Agriculture Division of DowDuPont™. Broad and Pioneer continue to retain the right to grant independent, non-exclusive licenses for the CRISPR-Cas9 IP that each institution controls to any interested entity. EUROPEAN-SEED.COM I EUROPEAN SEED I 47