04/05/05 Bean seed growers not interested in China

The Idaho Bean Commission has been working for several years to get seed into Mexico and it appears that the effort is beginning to pay off. Test plots have been harvested and more will be planted. Mexican growers need new seed stocks because they face the same problems as growers in other countries. Randy Duckworth is executive director of the US Dry Bean Council. DUCKWORTH "In China the typical farmer is just on a small plot and they hold back some of their production to replant the next year and as our bean growers know here that leads to lower yields and more disease problems." But Idaho and other US growers are reluctant to sell bean seed to China, which is becoming a growing threat to their industry. While countries like China and Turkey are major exporters of dry beans, Duckworth says Idaho bean seed growers can certainly find plenty of niche markets in other countries that grow beans only for domestic consumption. DUCKWORTH "Rwanda being an example of a country where almost every person that owns the tiniest bit of land plants beans on it for his own use and the seed varieties that they have there are just terrible." Voice of Idaho Agriculture Bill Scott