PROCEDURE FOR THE APPLICATION OF INTERNATIONAL SEED TESTING CERTIFICATES

PROCEDURE FOR THE APPLICATION OF INTERNATIONAL SEED TESTING CERTIFICATES

GENERAL

The Official Seed Testing Station (OSTS) is housed in the division Seed Quality Control of the Directorate Genetic Resources. As an accredited member station of the International Seed Testing Association (ISTA), the OSTS is authorised to issue International Seed Testing Certificates. However, these certificates can only be issued where samples have been drawn and tests carried out in accordance with the International Rules for Seed Testing currently in force.

There are three types of certificates available that can be issued by the OSTS, namely Seed Lot Certificates (Orange and Green) and a Seed Sample Certificate (Blue). The Seed Lot Certificates can only be issued when the sample is drawn officially from a seed lot under the authority of an authorised member station. The two types are as follows:

1) Orange International Seed Lot Certificate

This certificate is issued when the sample is drawn officially from the lot and tests carried out under the authority of the same member station and the procedure followed identifies the certificate with the seed lot. The certificate is coloured orange. Currently this is the most popular type of certificate requested.

2) Green International Seed Lot Certificate

The certificate is issued when the sample is drawn officially from the lot under the authority of one authorised member station but the tests are carried out at another authorised member station in a different country and the procedure followed identifies the certificate with the seed lot. The certificate is coloured green.

The third type, an International Seed Sample Certificate, is issued when sampling from the lot is not under the responsibility of a member station. In this case the authorised member station is only responsible for testing the sample as submitted. It is not responsible for the relationship between the sample and any seed lot from which it may have been derived. The certificate is coloured blue. A small number of these certificates are issued annually.

Duplicate and Provisional certificates may also be issued. A duplicate is an exact copy of a completed International Seed Testing Certificate. A provisional certificate is issued before the completion of all tests, which includes a statement that a final certificate will be issued upon completion, e.g. after completion of the purity analysis.

Please remember that the current tariff is applicable for each certificate issued.

The following principles are applicable:

	An International Seed Testing Certificate shall only be issued if sampling and testing were in accordance with the rules pertaining to the type of certificate issued.
	For a Seed Lot Certificate (Orange and Green), each container in the lot must be sealed or be self-sealing and bear an identifying mark or number which also appears on the certificate so that it is clear to which containers (the seed lot) the certificate refers.
	A certificate shall be valid until it is superseded by a certificate subsequently issued on the same lot— validity is as follows—

Not more than one certificate shall be valid at one time for any particular attribute.

It is not permissible for the Director of the same seed testing station to issue another certificate of the same colour as a result of a further sampling from the same seed lot within one month of the previous sampling.

When the one month limit is exceeded, another certificate may be issued provided that the reference number, colour of the previous certificate and the date of pervious sampling are indicated. The certificate shall also carry a statement that the previous certificate has been cancelled in respect of the tests reported in the later certificate.

The lot shall be re-labelled and re-sealed.

If the identity of the seed lot has changed the certificate is no longer valid e.g. re-cleaned, containers removed or added, etc.

At the time of sampling, all containers must be labelled or marked to show unique lot identification corresponding to the lot identification on the certificate. The seed testing station concerned must approve the lot identification.

APPLICATION PROCEDURE FOR ORANGE INTERNATIONALCERTIFICATES

The procedure for the application of Orange International Seed Lot Certificates has been in place from April 1994. This procedure is currently as follows:

1. Application forms have been drawn up in order to facilitate this procedure, namely APPLICATION FOR THE ISSUANCE OF AN ORANGE INTERNATIONAL SEED LOT CERTIFICATE – OIC. Number 1) INFORMATION SUPPLIED BY APPLICANT and number 4) SAMPLE PARTICULARS must be completed in full by the interested client.

The handwriting must be neat and legible. This information is required for the completion of the OIC, therefore please supply the correct information. If a re-issuance of a certificate is required due to an error in this information, an additional certificate tariff will be charged.

2. After completion, the applications forms are faxed to the OSTS at Roodeplaat (fax no. 012 – 8085383) for the allocation of the required lot numbers.

3. On receipt of the faxed application forms the OSTS will allocate the necessary unique lot numbers and refax the application forms back to the client, as well as to the applicable authorised official seed sampler who will be responsible for the sampling procedure. These officers are stationed at the regional offices of the Audit Division, north or south, as the case may be.

4. The client is now responsible for the preparation of the seed lot/s for the sampling procedure, which includes the marking of the lot with the allocated lot numbers. Each container must be marked (clearly legible) or furnished with a label stating the allocated lot number.

5. Only when the seed lot/s are ready for sampling shall the authorised officer be notified. The application forms with the allocated lot numbers (as faxed by the OSTS) must also accompany the seed lot/s for the officer’s attention.

6. The authorised officer shall be responsible for the official sampling and sealing of the seed lot/s.

6.1 The officer shall only proceed with sampling if he/she has been notified per fax by the OSTS. If the seed lot has been relocated to other premises after application has been made, please notify the OSTS immediately, in order that the correct regional office can be made aware that OIC sampling is to be carried out.

6.2 Before sampling can take place, the officer will compare their application forms with those of the client and also check the prepared seed lot/s in order to verify if the correct number/s have been allocated. Only if all information is correct, will they proceed with sampling. Please draw the attention of the officer to any changes that might have taken place after application was made. If any information such as the number of containers and/or weights of seed lots now differ, the officer must be notified as there is a maximum restriction to the weight of seed lots for the various species. If you are not sure if the changes are acceptable, contact the OSTS for verification before sampling takes place.

6.3 As from one sampling operation, only one sample may be submitted for testing, the drawn sample may be subjected to more than one test (e.g. purity and germination).

6.4 However, certain tests, such as for moisture or weight determination, require the submission of a separate sample from the same sampling operation in special packaging to accompany the definitive sample. The audit officer must also seal these additional samples. Please notify the officer if such a test is required. The return of the officer at a later stage for additional sampling will not be allowed.

6.5 The officer will complete the necessary information required by him/her (2 – INFORMATION SUPPLIED BY THE OFFICIAL SAMPLER) on the application forms and the completed hand-written forms must accompany the samples to the OSTS. It is recommended that a photocopy be made after completion thereof, for record purposes.

7. These samples can only be submitted by the authorised audit officer to the OSTS and can under no circumstances be left at the company. The audit division will submit these samples to the OSTS via the postal service. Due to urgency and in order to save time you may, however, request that the samples be sent per courier to the OSTS. If so, it will at your own cost and the necessary arrangements must be made with the officer. The courier can collect the samples from the regional office or from your premises, only if the officer is still available. Under no circumstances will permission be given that the samples are left at the company, not even for a short period of time.

8. No application form of any format other than the one supplied by the OSTS will be accepted at any stage. Retain an original copy for further duplication (photocopy) purposes.

9. Instances may arise where a company applies for OIC’s for twenty seed lots and after the first ten are ready, will require sampling. The officer can sample the prepared seed lots but he/she must clearly indicate which seed lots have been sampled during the 1^st sampling action. Thereafter, the officer must make a photocopy of the completed form and the hand-written form must accompany the samples to the OSTS. The officer must retain the photocopy for the 2^nd sampling action. When the remaining seed lots are ready, then the photocopy can be utilised. Once again the hand written form must accompany the samples. This procedure can be repeated until all seed lots have been sampled.

Sampling in stages is, however, not encouraged and companies must strive to prepare all the seed lots in a consignment, in order that a single sampling action will be required. This procedure must be followed in order that duplicate sampling of a single seed lot, by accident, is avoided.

10. If a company wants to cancel an application for a seed lot after the lot numbers have been allocated, both the OSTS and the officer must be notified. The officer will then indicate such cancellations on the application forms when sampling the remaining seed lots.

11. If you wish to make application for a seed kind that is not listed in the official variety list, please specify the botanical genus and species names e.g. pumpkin – variety Trout (Cucurbita maxima).

Remember there are three Cucurbita species, namely maxima, moschata and pepo that all have the common name pumpkin or squash.

12. Applications will only be valid for a period of four months from the date of issuance of the lot numbers. After the four-month period has expired, the applications will be cancelled without notifying the applicable companies.

13. All personnel employed at the OSTS strive to deliver a fast and efficient service. We will, therefore, attempt to issue the required lot numbers as soon as possible after receipt of the fax. However, if a fax is received after 15:00 hours, the numbers will only be allocated the next day.

14. The demand for OIC’s for seed lots that are in small containers has increased recently. If the seed is to be packed in small containers such as tins, cartons or packets used in the retail trade, the following is recommended:

A 100kg weight of seed is taken as the basic unit.

The small containers are combined to form sampling units not exceeding this weight e.g. 20 containers of 5kg, 33 containers of 3kg, 100 containers of 1kg, etc.

For sampling purposes, each 100kg unit is regarded as one container in order to determine the sampling intensity.

The small containers shall be opened or pierced for abstraction of seed for sampling. The sampled containers must then be closed or the contents transferred to new containers. Please make sure that sufficient containers are on hand for replacement purposes, if required.

In order that the OSTS can assist the officer in the number of containers to be sampled, it will be necessary to notify us that the seed lot is in small packaging. Indicate the quantity of seed in the small packaging, as well as the number of small inner containers (tins, cartons, packets, etc.) in each outer container (usually a box or bag).

APPLICATION PROCEDURE FOR GREEN INTERNATIONAL CERTIFICATES

The above mentioned procedure (No. 1 → 14) is applicable for Orange International Certificates. If you require a Green International Certificate please contact the Official Seed Testing Station immediately, as another authorised member station will become involved, either for the sampling or testing and issuance of the certificate, as the case may be.

APPLICATION PROCEDURE FOR BLUE INTERNATIONALCERTIFICATES

The Blue International Certificate does not require the services of an authorised sampler, i.e. sampling from the lot is not under the responsibility of a member station, and the procedure is not followed. The sample/s are drawn from the applicable seed lots by the company self and may be sealed with the company seal or by using another suitable method e.g. company sticker or red letter-sealer. These sample/s are then submitted directly to the Official Seed Testing Station together with a suitable covering letter, with all the company’s particulars and other applicable information that may appear on the certificate. The applicable information is as follows:

	Name and address of applicant
	Species, variety (cultivar), etc.
	An identification number e.g. code number.
	Weight of lot and number of bags (if required and available)
	Date of sampling (if required and available).

Please remember to state that you require Blue International Certificates.

It is of utmost importance that you remember that exporting of the relevant seed lots before issuance of the International Certificates will be done at your own risk. Sometimes circumstances may arise that are outside the control of the Official Seed Testing Station e.g. samples are lost or damaged in the postal system, and re-sampling is required. If the seed lots are no longer available we cannot be held responsible and no certificate will be issued.