BANGKOK: Regional food security, breeding for ‘Climate Change’ and the implementation of new seed-specific phytosanitary measures are among the key areas of focus at the upcoming 24th Asian Seed Congress, set to convene in the heart of the Thai capital, 13-17 November.
Registration for the annual members event opened this afternoon (November 12) and will close at 5pm, set to reopen tomorrow morning at 8am.
[caption id="attachment_4814" align="aligncenter" width="1024"]
Staff of the APSA Secretariat and the Thai National Organizing Committee are hyped up for the 24th Asian Seed Congress.[/caption]
More than 1,100 delegates from 50 countries across the globe are expected to attend the meeting and exhibition, which is organized in different host countries annually by the Asia and Pacific Seed Association (APSA).
To be held at the Marriott Marquis Queen’s Park hotel on Sukhumvit Road, the exclusive members event comprises a trade exhibition and technical sessions scheduled 13-16 November.
The exhibition will feature 50 booths, 150 trading tables and about a dozen private meeting rooms, where seed brokers are anticipated to generate millions in business leads and deals.
The event unofficially gets underway on 13 November with a Pre-Congress Workshop themed on “Climate Smart Seed Industry”, which features several keynote lectures in the morning, followed by an Expert Round Table Panel discussion in the afternoon.
On 14, 15 and 16 November, there will be seven consecutive technical sessions, which are organized by APSA’s three Standing Committees (Seed Technology, Trade & Marketing and Intellectual Property Rights & Biodiversity) and four Special Interest Groups (Field Crops, Cover Crops, Hybrid Rice and Vegetables & Ornamentals).
Living up to the Asian Seed Congress tradition, a number of social functions are planned for delegates throughout the week, including dinner and cocktail meetings, a golf tournament and accompanying persons tour.
The Asian Seed Congress will formally conclude on the evening of 16 November with a Gala Dinner.
Several seed production and other operations tours are also scheduled on 17 November in various locations outside of Bangkok. These are being hosted by Chia Tai, Co. Ltd., East-West Seed (Thailand) Co., Ltd. and Thailand’s Rice Department.
The full program and itinerary can be downloaded from APSA’s website (apsaseed.org).
Seed trade surplus is a useful indicator of food security.[/caption]
Recent seed trade figures underline strong demand in Asia Pacific countries for both high quality and high quantities of sowing seed.
According to import and export statistics covering a recent one-year period – from July 2016 to June 2017 – no less than four million tonnes of sowing seed had been traded to and from the region.
This seed, including various types of field, forage, vegetable, fruit and flower crop seed, had a gross value of more than $ 7 billion, deriving from three million tonnes of imports worth $2.2 billion in addition to about one million tonnes of exported seed valued at $4.7 billion.
The figures derive from official consignment declarations collected by UN Trade Commission from dozens of APSA territory countries – in Oceania, the Far East, Central, South and Southeast Asia.
A majority of the trade activity was in APSA’s major member countries; namely India, China, Thailand, Israel, Turkey, Australia, New Zealand, Japan, South Korea, Chinese Taipei, Philippines, Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore, Kazakhstan and Vietnam.
Key APSA countries not reflected in the figures include Pakistan, Bangladesh, Nepal, Sri Lanka and Myanmar, where data from the first half of this year was unavailable at the time of press.
APSA is the world’s largest regional seed trade association in terms of members and territory, and its member countries account for more than one third of the global seed trade.
Asian Seed & Planting Material – APSA’s official publication – regularly features comprehensive country seed trade reports and analysis as one of many benefits for members and associates.
This year we have published such reports for India, Thailand, China and Pakistan, which can be read in back issues uploaded to APSA’s website.
In an upcoming edition of Asian Seed (Volume 23, Issue 6), a regional “report card” will feature more country specific analytics on seed trade as well as specific climate change impacts.
For further details, figures and citations, please contact APSA’s Communications Officer via email (steven@apsaseed.org)
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