The major seed supplier in the country, Hop Tiy and Company Limited confirms that they have run out of stock of seeds for a number of vegetables, and expect shipment to arrive later this month.
These includes seeds for eggplants, long bean, okra, radish, tomatoes, cucumber and lettuce.
The company says it imports seeds from Hong Kong, Taiwan, the USA and Australia and since there is very less air freight, they have to wait for shipment which will take time.
Hop Tiy and Company Limited supplies seeds to most hardware stores around the country and a number of them have advised us that they do not have seeds for a number of vegetables.
Hop Tiy and Company Limited says there has been a huge demand for seeds and they just have not been able to cater for everyone.
Meanwhile, Agriculture Ministry’s Permanent Secretary, Ritesh Dass says they will resume distributing pre-packed vegetable seeds from next Monday at agricultural offices around the country.
Dass says this will be done progressively as they have a backlog and massive demand from the public for seeds has put a pressure on the whole supply chain.
Dass says as people will come in, they will progressively get six different types of seeds which will be pre-packed.
Insert: backlog may 1st
Dass says people will need to fulfill registration requirements when they visit agricultural offices where they will have give their name, telephone contact and address.
He says they have run home gardening initiative for a number weeks till about two weeks ago when it was temporarily suspended as they had to prioritse help towards the worst stricken areas after TC Harold.
He says until that time, they had given away more than 11,000 packs of seeds for home gardeners.
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