According to Andrea Ballesteros, a journalist in the El Estimulo website, the National Federation of Vegetable and Potato Producers (Fenaphort) will request avacatio legisperiod be applied to the Seed Law, which was published in the Extraordinary Official Gazette of December 28, 2015, so that it's not enforced in March, as was planned, because they consider it is detrimental to the sector.
"This law will set us back 40 years. Aragua, Carabobo, and a good part of Lara are largely dependent on the import of potato seeds from Canada because there still is no production center for these in the country," said Aldemaro Ortega, director of Fenaphort and president of the Potato Association from the state of Carabobo (Asopapa).
He said that the industry and the producers of white potatoes considered that there was a gap in the Seed Law because the statute does not clearly state who will provide them with seeds for future planting cycles.
"The law relates to the transgenic seeds, but we do not use that kind of grain. We use hybrid," he stated.
Thus, Ortega asked the Government to verify the type of seeds used in potato plantings in the Midwest. "This is the historic moment to do so, to go to Carabobo, Lara, and Aragua, to verify that we require hybrid seeds while a real national seed plan is established, and that will take its time. It might take years," he said.
According to the provisions of Article 36 of the law, "the National Seed Commission may authorize the importation of seeds for research, seed and food production, without prejudice to the powers of the Tax and Customs Administration in accordance with the law on the subject."
In Article 37 the legal instrument also provides that, to import seeds, importers only need a single certificate, which will be awarded by the Ministry of Agriculture and Lands, after the National Seed Commission has authorized it.
"This single certificate will cover legal, phytosanitary, bio-safety, and trade aspects regarding imports and it will be given to those who fulfil the requirements of the law, such as proving there is a need to import seed because there is a lack of national seed," he added. The Ministry of Agriculture and Lands will discuss with importers what financial and technology measures it will take for the promotion of seed production in the national territory.
Ortega said the Government didn't discuss the content of the law before its enactment with potato producers, contrary to what Jorge Arreaza, who was Vice President then, stated when the new legal instrument was published in the Official Gazette.
"This law will destroy potato producers. Nobody here produces industrial or fresh potato seeds," he said.
Future crops are threatened
Ortega said the government, through the National Foreign Trade Center (Cencoex) and the Central Bank of Venezuela (BCV), had paid 982,264.50 dollars to import 5,250 tons of seed potatoes from Canada, which should arrive to Venezuela in the beginning of February.
2,250 tons of these seeds are for Merida, Tachira and Trujillo; 1,250 tons are for the producers from Lara, and 1,250 tons are for industrial use.
The late arrival of the potato seeds, caused by the government's late payment, could affect the planting in Carabobo and Aragua, which starts in December, Ortega said.
The union leader said that he thought the Seed Act had been prepared in haste and that the country would feel its consequences in October, because producers would have used all the seeds they imported from Canada by that time. "If the producers don't get elite, Venezuelan, certified seeds that ensure optimum performance, the sector will collapse and we will have to start planting something different," he stated.
Source: descifrado.com