Aiden Brook, business development manager at Seed World Group, sat down with Scott Horner, Co-CEO of HyTech Production, at the Seed Association of the Americas (SAA)’s 8th Seed Congress of the Americas. Horner chats with Brook about HyTech Production, the current state of counter-season production and what organizations like SAA are doing to improve the future of counter-season production.
“Right now, the plenary session is all about phytosanitary items and controversies. In the future, the biggest controllable challenge would be around the regulatory system. In Chile and globally, in the counter-season, regulatory capacity is critical to our success,” he shares.
Annually, there are more than a million phytosanitary certificates issued across the globe, according to Horner. With this massive influx of certificates, challenges including time and cost come into play. To combat these obstacles, two new initiatives are in the works — E Fidos and a systems approach.
“E-phytos removes the human element and makes things digital and travel faster,” he explains. “The systems approach is an initiative that the International Seed Federation (ISF) is leading, but SAA is involved in. The systems approach is recognizing the systems that companies already have in place — quality management systems (QMS) — for controlling seed. This makes sure that the seed we produce is pure and has no weeds or insect diseases. This accredits the company as an authorized shipper, instead of accrediting every shipment.”
Chile is currently taking part in a pilot alongside the U.S., Netherlands and Australia. As the initiative gains traction, Horner stresses the importance of its success.
“Because of gene editing, the amount of material that’s coming into the regulatory scope and the amount of seed that’s going to move the development that’s taking place is exponential. The capacity just isn’t there today, let alone in the future. We need to build these tools in,” adds Horner. To learn more, watch the full video below:
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