What is the deal with the Chinese seed packets? 🌱🌿 ✉

The news media and state agriculture departments want you to be very weary about unsolicited seeds received in the mail from China.

Mostly a hoax, probably from an isolated incident somewhere in the country, it makes the perfect conspiracy to boost the prominence of state agriculture departments which are mostly ignored outside of farming community. It also raises the spotlight on invasive species which are problematic all over.

Here is the deal. Most likely, he packets are just random junk being mailed to boost promotion on Ali Express and Alibaba and claim they’re selling more of legitimate products than they really are.

Alibaba verifies international sales by postage counts, and currently international mail is very cheap from China as it has developing world status with the international postal union.

They won’t ship the package at the discounted rate if it’s empty.

One time I ordered something from Ali Express and it was delayed. They mailed me a note saying with a single piece of jumper wire in it to comply with postal regulations.

Ali Express is wonderful for electronic hobbyists who don’t mind waiting, fantastic deals on things like resistors, capacitors and microcontrollers. But there are also some scammy businesses on that site, so buyer beware.