CropLife responds to seed certificate cancellations

KARACHI: CropLife Pakistan Association on Thursday clarified that none of its member companies have been identified for cancellation of registration by the Federal Seed Certification and Registration Department.

The clarification was made in response to the registration suspension of 204 companies in Punjab and Sindh by the Federal Seed Certification and Registration Department of the Ministry of National Food Security and Research.

CropLife Executive Director Rashid Ahmed said, “Names on the list being associated with our member companies are of defunct legal entities, no longer used to carry out business in the country.”

He explained that CropLife member companies continued to be fully authorised and legally registered with the Federal Seed Certification and Registration Department to market their seed products across the whole of Pakistan.

CropLife said the Federal Seed Certification and Registration Department had listed Monsanto Pakistan Agri Tech (Pvt) Ltd and Bayer Crop Science Pakistan (Pvt) Ltd; however, both companies have been non-operational for almost ten years. The companies “have no legal existence after the transfer of business to a new legal entity”, a statement said.

Pakistan has 782 seed companies, including five multinationals and four government-run companies. Punjab has the highest number of seed companies at 644, with Sindh holding 96 companies, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa 25, Balochistan five, and Gilgit-Baltistan three companies.

Bayer Pakistan CEO and Managing Director Dr Imran Ahmad Khan said, “Following the global acquisition of Monsanto by Bayer AG, the present legal entity registered with Federal Seed Certification and Registration Department, and representing the combined company in Pakistan going forward, is Bayer Pakistan (Pvt) Ltd.”