Overview

• Plant-health checks at Frankfurt Airport identified about 65,000 seed shipments from China lacking required documents by early June, with most returned to sender.
• Authorities say many parcels were falsely declared as items like earrings or greeting cards and often contained seeds the recipients did not order.
• The DHL post and parcel hub at Frankfurt concentrates incoming mail from China, leaving Hesse far more affected than other German states.
• Investigators have not determined the motive and are considering possibilities such as a brushing scam or attempts to probe weak EU entry points.
• The Julius Kühn-Institut advises against ordering seed online from non‑EU countries and calls for China to comply with customs and plant‑health regulations.