Legal action against SL Plant Quarantine Service & Media a possibility - Qingdao Seawin

COLOMBO (News 1st); Chinese Organic Fertilizer manufacturer Qingdao Seawin Biotech Group Co., LTD says they reserve the right to pursue legal action against the party issuing test reports violating the scientific test results and the media who falsely disseminates the test results.

Qingdao Seawin the exporter of the rejected Chinese fertilizer stock issued an undated press release received by News 1st today (7) making a clarification regarding the controversy.

The statement read "It is incomprehensible that Sri Lanka has does not honour the contracts and mislead its people with false test results at a time of soaring global fertilizer prices and shortage."

It added that the raw materials used in the organic fertilizer which it exported to Sri Lanka are humic acid, amino acid, seaweed, and that these raw materials themselves do not contain Erwinia, adding that they are very safe and high-efficiency organic fertilizer.

Quindao Seawin Biotech in their release states "the false report that a Chinese company exported organic fertilizer containing harmful microorganisms to Sri Lanka misled many people and consumers who don’t not know the truth, and caused a great obstacle to fair trade of export enterprise"

The company states that what the media and National Plant Quarantine Service officials disclosed that the products contained Erwinia, is not consistent with the facts, and that it is a serious smear behavior.

The company goes on to note that the production process of this organic fertilizer that was exported, includes a necessary process of high-temperature sterilization at 600℃ for 20 min.

It adds that the lethal condition of the detected Erwinia is 45-50℃, and can be completely eliminated in 10 mins.

Therefore, after 20 minutes of sterilization process at 600℃, it is impossible for any form Erwinia to remain in the organic fertilizer.

The statement went on to note that the organic fertilizer exported this time has passed the test of the third-party testing

company designated by SLSI. It added that however, the importer has not applied for the import permit certificate.

Besides, the plant quarantine certificate issued by the Chinese Customs has also been clearly stated that the plant products have been inspected and/or tested according to appropriate procedures and are considered to be free from quarantine pests specified by the importing country/region.

In addition the company said the technical Center of Qingdao Customs of Qingdao also tested this batch of products on the 2nd of October, and the results also shows that there is no Erwinia.

The statement read that the enterprise has passed the ISO9000, and the series of products have passed the ECCERT and OMRI organic certification.

It added that the it is one of the top ten organic fertilizer brands in China, and it has been exported to more than 50 countries without any complaint or punishment in more than 20 years.

The Chinese company repeatedly proposed to entrust a third-party global qualified testing institute to re-test the products. However, the statement read that still there is no response from the importer.