ome time is likely to pass before the future of the Plant Breeders’ Right (PBR) for the citrus cultivar Nadorcott in South Africa is settled. There is so much at stake, even for the Registrar of Plant Breeders’ Rights, who granted these rights back in 2004, that insiders in the industry say the process will continue for a while yet and they believe that the PBR is unlikely to be lifted.
A significant part of the South African Nadorcott crop is sold under the brand ClemenGold, which in recent years has become one of the prominent new fruit brands exported from South Africa and is also sold on the local market. The challenge to the PBR is now also throwing a shadow over the future of ClemenGold as a brand.
The international plant breeders’ rights for Nardorcott are held by the Nadorcott Protection Company (NPC). These rights have been registered in South Africa since 2004 and are managed by the company, CitroGold, which has been appointed by the NPC. “The NPC and CitroGold, as South African manager, therefore now have to defend the challenge. The variety has been planted by growers in South Africa who have invested many millions of rands on the basis of a legal PBR. Can you imagine what will happen if this PBR is now declared invalid?” asks one insider.
The present dispute over the plant breeders’ rights for Nadorcott is one of those subjects on which everyone in the South African industry has a strong opinion, but few want to go public with their views. “It’s the biggest story in the South African industry in many years and the outcome is crucial for certain players,” says one exporter.
It is important to note that the growers who planted the variety in South Africa are all members of the Prestige Mandarin Growers Club (PMG). “Growers became members on the basis of signing two agreements with Citrogold. The PMG represents growers’ interests, but are not involved with the dispute.”
Growers who wanted to plant Nadorcott, as well as two Israeli varieties, Orri and Mor, had to become members of the PMG before they could receive plant material. Through this, both the marketing and the area planted with this variety are controlled.
At the time CitroGold indicated that brands would be developed for all three varieties. Eventually they settled on ClemenGold for Nadorcott, ClemenOr for Orri and HoneyGold for Mor. Of the three ClemenGold went on to become the most successful.
Now, however, the brand is also entering stormy waters because it is reported to have been transferred from CitroGold to a private company, The ClemenGold Company, a move which some growers say has moved it outside the control or influence of the Prestige Mandarin Growers.
The concept of controlling both the planting and marketing of new varieties through grower clubs is common across all sectors of the South African and international fresh produce industries. By doing so exciting new varieties can be introduced and marketed in order to secure the long-term future of the variety and therefore bring sustainability to the growers who plant them. What is different with Nadorcott in South Africa is the fact that the very basis of forming these clubs is being eroded by a challenge to the plant breeders’ rights and that has set the cats among the pigeons.
A citrus grower from South Africa’s Sundays River Valley, Mark Hume, has challenged the PBR for Nadorcott by approaching the South African Registrar of Plant Breeders’ Rights. A complaint has also been registered with the South African Competition Commission alleging restrictive and uncompetitive practices in the handling of the variety in South Africa.
At the heart of the matter is reported to be plant material gathered, imported into South Africa and cleaned and released under ‘the industry’ umbrella during an era which existed at the end of the 1990s. Observers say that in the process of dismantling the regulation-era structures, new plant organisations have been formed; varieties had been registered and trademarked, with the result of some of them having been excluded from the general grower body.
Last year the Citrus Growers’ Association (CGA) took the unusual step to form its own CGA Cultivar Company. The objective is reported to be giving all growers more access to so-called ‘free varieties’, or at least create more competition in the area of varieties controlled by plant breeders’ rights and trademarks.
Hume based his application on the arguments that Nadorcott was imported into the USA without any restrictions from the cultivar owner in Morocco. The cultivar is reported to be also known as W. Murcott in the USA and was cleaned, multiplied and commercially released without restrictions in the USA during January 1993. According to Hume’s argument, South Africa acquired plant material (of Nadorcott) from Morocco, which was also cleaned, multiplied and released
8 November 1999. The plant material of W. Murcott was thereafter also acquired from USA by the Citrus Improvement Scheme, again without any restrictions. This material is referred to as Nadorcott 2 in South Africa.
The registrar, Noluthando Netnou Nkoana, held the first meeting on the application on 31 July 2012. Netnou Nkoana says this was done to gain information from various sources in South Africa. “The registrar will meet with its own advocates before the end of September to map out the further process in hearing the application.”
There have reportedly been plantings of around 2.5 million of the disputed trees in the US prior to the owners of Nadorcott applying for a patent there in January 1997. This was subsequently granted on 7 July 1998 as plant patent #10,480.
W. Murcott is reported to having been commercialised in the US in January 1993. US legislation allows one year grace before the application for registration of plant breeders’ rights must be submitted. This is different from the application process in other UPOV countries, of which South Africa is a member. An application for a Nadorcott Plant Breeders’ Right in South Africa was submitted on 22 August 2001 and granted on 29 March 2004.
As the argument around the PBR in South Africa for Nadorcott continues, a new variety called Tango, for which patent rights in the US as plant patent #17,863, was issued in July 2007, and is becoming an option in South Africa for growers who may feel they missed the Nadorcott boat. This variety has been developed by the University of California Riverside (UCR) through irradiation of a W. Murcott bud. According to Jonathan Roberts, general manager of the CGA Cultivar Company, Tango is substantially different from its parent.
There is no doubt that this will still be debated in future, or that possible challenges to this variety may also occur. Roberts recently hosted a delegation from the UCR and the Cordoba company, Euro Semillas, to present Tango to South African growers. They agree that planting Tango will also be costly, but say it offers them more choice in deciding what they should plant.
In settling the challenge the registrar will know that the stakes are high, even for her office, which granted the disputed PBR in the first place. If the PBR is upheld, there is still bound to be some changes in future. Observers believe that the members of the Prestige Mandarin Growers, although not responsible for defending the PBR, may well take a reconciliatory route by insisting that Nadorcott is opened to more growers in South Africa. —
TANGO & CASH
Jonathan Roberts, general manager of the CGA Cultivar Company on the potential of new variety Tango: “While Tango is also subject to plant breeders’ rights and is branded, it will provide an alternative for South African growers who may have lost out on other varieties.”
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