Ukraine sets up first ESTA site outside of the EU

ESA’s quality assurance scheme for seed treatment and treated seed, the ‘European Seed Treatment Assurance’ (ESTA), is establishing its position as a true pan-European standard with a new site in Ukraine. Maïsadour Seeds has been awarded ESTA certification at its Ukrainian industrial complex for hybrid seed production.

ESTA combines a number of elements to guarantee professional, high quality seed treatment applications such as independent certification of treatment sites by accredited auditors, defined quality reference values with a uniform testing protocol, and safe use information and respective labelling for users.

“The successful ESTA certification of the Maïsadour seed treatment site in the Ukraine marks an important next step in the development of our quality assurance scheme. It shows the clear commitment of the industry to implement its high quality standards and procedures not only in the EU itself but also beyond,” Garlich von Essen, Secretary General of ESA stated. “This is of general importance in view of the increasing international movement of treated seed – and more specifically for such an important seed country as the Ukraine.”

The continual improvement as key ESTA commitment also ensures the further proactive development and implementation of state of the art best practices throughout the industry. Every ESTA certified site helps to make sure that EU seed companies, farmers and growers alike may safeguard their long-term access to crucial seed and crop protection technologies.

The Ukrainian Maïsadour Seeds’ seed production site – located in Mogilev, near Dnepropetrovsk – received the first ESTA certification issued outside the European Union in late 2014. “We hope that many seed companies in the Ukraine will follow the leadership shown by Maïsadour and also become ESTA certified in the coming year”, said Garlich v. Essen.