The COMESA Seed Programme through the Alliance for Commodity Trade in Eastern and Southern Africa (ACTESA) has developed over four million physical seed labels that are ready for use by seed companies in the region. The labels will enable companies engage in regional seed trade for large seed consignments crossing the borders and in-country seed trade in smaller packages.

ACTESA/COMESA Seed Expert Dr John Mukuka revealed in Lusaka that the Seed Labels can be stuck on different sizes of bags including 1kg, 2kg, 5kg, 10kg, 20kg and 25kg bags within a 30 to 40 metric tonnes COMESA certified seed lot.

The COMESA Seed Labels are meant to provide an easy passage at the border and they are now available at the COMESA Secretariat at $0.035/label in order to facilitate regional seed trade within the 21 COMESA Member States,” Dr Mukuka said in a statement issued in Lusaka on Friday 9 April 2021.

ACTESA, a Specialised Agency of COMESA, manages the Seed Development Programme which is implemented within the guidelines of the COMESA Seed Harmonisation Implementation Plan (COMSHIP). In line with COMSHIP, the programme has developed the COMESA Variety Catalogue, a platform that contains seed varieties which comply with requirements of having the seed registered in two COMESA Member States. Once a variety is on the COMESA Variety Catalogue, it does not have to be subjected to more tests and can be imported, marketed and, if necessary, produced in any of the 21 COMESA Member States.

The operations of the COMESA Variety Catalogue requires that seed companies certifies that a variety that has been registered officially in two COMESA Member States coupled with data of the variety showing the Distinction Uniformity and Stability (DUS) and Value for Cultivation or Use (VCU) / National Performance Tests (NPT).

Get more details on:-https://varietycatalogue.comesa.int/login.