Total exclusion! No delivery of plant starting material for failing to comply with Plant Breeders’ Rights! This may soon become a reality in the world of bedding plants and follows the monitoring of re-propagation in controls initiated by ten major plant breeding companies and suppliers of starting material.

Monitoring or policing as it is also known is carried out by Royalty Administration International (RAI) in ’s-Gravenzande (Netherlands). This agency has an established reputation for expertise in the field of Plant Breeders’ Rights and royalty supervision and was approached by Fleuroselect, the international organisation for the ornamental plants industry to monitor Plant Breeders’ Right compliance for several of its members. This month RAI is entering its fourth season. “After what was predominantly a period of orientation, we have reached the stage where we have a functioning, monitoring system at our disposal that is wholeheartedly supported by the ten participants”, says Managing Director Maarten Leune. These ten are the breeding companies and suppliers of starting material: Ball Floraplant, Danziger, Fides, Florensis, Moerheim/Suntory, Nebelung, Sakata, Selecta/Klemm, Sunny and Syngenta. Given the number and size of these companies, RAI's monitoring covers practically 90% of the market for a series of important crops.

Sixteen times lucky
According to Leune policing makes perfect sense. To illustrate this he only needs to refer to last year’s results when the controls started taking shape for the first time. Thirty visits revealed sixteen cases of illegal re-propagation with suspicious goings-on at an additional five. In total policing revealed activities linked to illegal re-propagation or, in the light of Plant Breeders’ Rights, at least deserving closer attention at two thirds of the locations visited.Subsequent fines for confirmed violations together with the unpaid royalties have amounted to many tens of thousands of Euros and the fact that these were settled without too much negotiation Leune sees as justification for the royalty system. ‘’In any case, growers who are not all that fussy about Plant Breeders’ Right regulations did prefer to settle.”

Tackling re-offenders
According to Leune, it goes without saying that the offenders can expect a repeat visit this year and “for a grower once again found to be flouting the rules, the consequences may turn out to be somewhat more serious than a fine and back payment of royalties”. Leune points out that there is nothing to stop the ten companies from having illegally re-propagated lots destroyed and in his view the next logical step would be total exclusion from deliveries. Leune emphasises that in cases of repeated royalty evasion it is up to individual companies to take appropriate action, but compared with the past the ten now form a united front against illegal propagation. Many a blind eye was turned to transgressions in the past, but breeding companies and suppliers of starting material are today taking up a different position. “Just by having the policing taken care of by an independent agency such as ours, also enables them to adopt a much stricter course and protect the honest majority”, he states, “and because these ten hold such a major market position for an important number of crops, exclusion by the whole group could have far-reaching consequences for a grower’s right to exist.’’

How it works
RAI carries out the policing controls based on random checks, knowledge of the market and tips. “We are aiming at acquiring an overall picture of Plant Breeders’ Right compliance and without a doubt, we will visit more large than small companies. Establishing illegal re-propagation at one of the big players gets us a lot further, but while on our travels we are only too happy to visit a smaller neighbour”. Controls are partly random so a visit from RAI does not automatically equal an allegation! Leune wishes to stress this. Also this year’s first-time controls in Poland should be viewed positively. “These are purely to familiarise growers with the Plant Breeders’ Right phenomenon and the royalty system. The market and production in Poland are different than in the west of Europe. Our goal is to get the realisation process regarding Plant Breeders’ Rights there moving.”