Bundesinstitut warnt vor Saatgut-Sendungen aus China
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Immer häufiger landen nicht bestellete Sendungen mit Saatgut in Briefkästen. Das zuständige Bundesforschungsinstitut mahnt zur Vorsicht.

Those who find packets of seed in their mailbox without an appropriate order should exercise caution. Often from China, the shipments are cause for warnings for the German authorities: It is strongly recommended not to sow uncultivated seeds, but to dispose of them in household waste - not in compost or in the biotonne.

“Such unknown seeds pose a danger to our nature, the urban greenery with gardens and parks and even agriculture,” explains Bernhard Schäfer from the Julius Kühn Institute (JKI) in Braunschweig, the Federal Research Institute for Crops.

“These can be invasive species that spread uncontrollably and displace native plants,” says Bernhard Schäfer from Germany’s Federal Research Institute for Crop Plants (Bundesforschungsinstitut für Kulturpflanzen).

The seed could also be affected by diseases and pests.

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Due to the danger of introducing invasive species, it is generally not recommended to buy seeds from China, for example, even if all papers are correct.

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At Frankfurt Airport this year, about 65,000 consignments of seeds from China without necessary papers were discovered during inspections by the plant health inspection until the beginning of June. This is an accumulation, as a JKI spokeswoman confirmed. In 2020, the responsible Governing Board of Giessen counted more than 126,000 such shipments – but in the full year.

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In Frankfurt, the phenomenon occurs so often because at Frankfurt Airport the DHL Post Centre is located, from which packets from China are sent to the whole of Germany. Other federal states are hardly affected by the “new mesh”, so the authorities.

The intention behind the unsolicited shipments has not yet been clearly clarified. Possible is so-called “brushing scam”, the experts speculate. This is called fraudulent tricks that have the goal of falsely driving sales figures up or receiving user reviews. Seeds are suitable for this method because it is easy and cheap and can be sent as a letter.

Another possible scenario is that entry points into the European Union will be tested in order to find places where unimportable shipments would pass more easily, according to the government headquarters.