Wallisellen, Switzerland
October 12, 2021

On Friday, October 08, 2021, ISTA Executive Committee has decided that the 2022 Congress will not take place in Christchurch, New Zealand. 
 
The decision was based on the fact, that at the moment it is not clear, how the immigration process into New Zealand will develop and if a managed isolation quarantine of 14 days might still be in place at the time of the Congress at least for several international participants. 
 
The ISTA Executive Committee followed the request of the ISTA Designated Authorities at the New Zealand Ministry of Primaries Industries to hold an ISTA Congress in New Zealand at the next possible Congress time in 2025. 
 
From 2022 the Ordinary General Meeting of the Association needs to be an in-person meeting of the voting delegates again, therefore the Executive Committee is in contact with Designated Authorities of countries, where immigration is possible for most delegates. It was also decided that the Congress in 2022 will be shorter than usual, composed of meetings during the period of 04–07 May 2022.  
 
The final location will be announced as soon as discussions are completed. 
 
Another important development to point is that the Seed Symposium ‘Quality Seed for Sustainable Agriculture’ will not take place at the Congress but maybe a stand-alone event in physical or virtual form later in 2022. All authors of already submitted papers will be informed and more information will be provided soon.   
 
More concrete information will follow, for the moment please mark your calendars for 04–07 May 2022 and we will inform everybody as soon as we have clearance on another location for the Congress.

Thank you for your understanding and we hope to see many of you in person in 2022!

Your ISTA Team

Website: http://www.seedtest.org

Published: October 12, 2021