The first UK ESTA accreditation
The new assurance scheme for the seed treatment industry, the European Seed Treatment Assurance scheme (ESTA), has its first assured participant.
Germains Seed Technology, based in Kings Lynn, West Norfolk were formally ESTA accredited in December by the certification body, PAI.
Paul Mullan, Managing Director and CEO at Germains said “We are thrilled to be the first in the UK to achieve this accreditation. As one of the world’s leading seed technology providers we are committed to delivering the highest level of seed treatment application quality to our customers and end users and are proud that our facilities have met the strict requirements demanded by ESTA. We remain focussed on continual improvement at all our sites.”
Garry Rudd, the ESTA Technical Manager at AIC. “We are delighted that Germains are now accredited to ESTA and hoped that other companies would now start to follow suit.”
ESTA was devised by the European Seed Association (ESA) in response to the EU Directive (2010/21) which requires insecticidal seed treatments to ‘only be performed in professional seed treatment facilities.’ The directive results from incidences of bee deaths in Germany, Austria and France, particularly associated with treated maize seed.