Domestic seed research needs to focus on innovation, insiders warn
Print Edition
Facing increasing competition from foreign companies, vegetable seed researchers and producers in China should focus more on innovation if they are to avoid the country’s food security being compromised, industry insiders have warned.
“Foreign companies occupy about one-fifth of the domestic vegetable seed market valued at about 10 billion yuan (US$1.6 billion) each year. And their share continues to increase,” said Sun Deling, vice president of the Academy of Agricultural Sciences in Tianjin, one of China’s centers for seed production.
Foreign firms entered the Chinese vegetable seed market in the late 1980s. After decades of development, they have almost monopolized the standard and high-end seed market, Sun said.
“Vegetable seeds sold by the kilogram in the past, later by the gram, and now even by the grain,” Sun said.
“More than a decade ago, the most expensive cauliflower seed was 200 yuan per kilogram. But now, seeds of the vegetable sell for 15,000 yuan to 20,000 yuan per kilogram among foreign companies,” he said.
Foreign players occupy about 80 percent of the domestic high-end seed market, according to Ma Dehua, general manger of Derit Seed Co Ltd in Tianjin.
For example, a type of tomato seed imported from Britain sells for 330 yuan per gram on Chinese online shopping platform Taobao, costlier than gold.
The high output from seeds from foreign firms attracts Chinese vegetable growers. Planting tomatoes, a farmer would spend 1,200 yuan for foreign seeds, compared to just 20 yuan for domestic equivalents.
Yet the output from foreign seeds will be 10,000 yuan to 20,000 yuan more than that of domestic seeds, Ma said.
“Seeds contribute more than 50 percent to increases in output and quality. If seeds are controlled by others, national security will be threatened,” Sun said.
Seed research institutions have access to a lot of government subsidies and have talented staff, but the commercialization of their scientific research achievements needs to improve, Fu Runting, Party chief of the Tianjin Academy of Agricultural Sciences, said.
Growers complain of rampant plagiarism in the sector.
“When we want to sell new types of seeds on the market, we are always in fear of having them copied by others seeking to compete with us,” said Ji Heliang, general manager of another Tianjin-based seed firm, Gengyun Seed Company.
Fu said support should be given to private companies, and intellectual property rights needed protection.
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