The state warned residents Monday that they could receive what the agency calls ‘strange’ seed packages ahead of the planting season.
The agency isn’t aware of anyone in Colorado receiving unsolicited seeds in the mail, yet, this year, but other states, including Texas and Alabama, have already started receiving such packages, said Wondirad Gebru, director of the department’s plant industry division.
“These incidents began in 2020 and ’21 — that was a peak year,” he said. “It’s just picking up.”
Coloradans have received unsolicited packages of seeds since 2020, which the Department of Agriculture said at the time appeared to come from China and other countries. More than 1,000 people have received unsolicited seeds since then, including at least two last year, Gebru said.
The investigated the packages along with the and discovered a “marketing blitz,” he said.
“They did not really find concrete (evidence) of bioterrorism, but there could always be the potential,” Gebru said. “These are not vetted (seeds).”
Resident should not plant any seed packages they receive unsolicited through the mail because they could be a potential biohazard, the agriculture agency warned.
The seeds could have invasive species, pests and plant diseases that could damage the state’s $47 billion agriculture economy, according to a news release.
Anyone who receives a package of seeds that they did not order should not open the packet nor throw them in the trash, according to the Department of Agriculture.
Instead, the seeds should be left in their original packet, which should be placed in a sealed plastic bag with the mailing label and sent to the Department of Agriculture for testing, according to the news release.
The address to mail the package is USDA APHIS PPQ, 3950 North Lewiston St., Suite 104, Aurora, Colorado 80011-1561.
