Citrogold, the company that owns the rights to exploit the protected mandarin variety Nadorcott in South Africa, made a somewhat ambiguous statement on 2 February in response to the letter received by the South African Registry of Plant Breeders' Rights, with the heading: "Decision on the request for termination of PBR for citrus variety: Nadorcott".
The official response from Citrogold, issued only a day before the start of Fruit Logistica in Berlin, criticised the letter's assumption about the variety's rights being over.
FreshPlaza has been able to determine that, back in the day, the Federation of Agro-food Cooperatives of Valencia presented an appeal in Europe against the declaration of the Nadorcott as a protected variety, claiming that it was a variety of Moroccan origin that had already been produced for many years and which was called Afourer. The appeal was dismissed administratively by the Community Bureau of Protected Varieties because of the "lack of legitimacy of the complainant."
In South Africa, where the Nadorcott became protected much later, an important grower was the one filing for the nullity of the protection for this variety with the same arguments. The South African Register of Plant Breeders' Rights admitted, for the first time, that there could be grounds for this nullity, thus questioning the position of one of the world's most successful varieties, commercially speaking.
Now, the South African Register of Plant Breeders' Rights is urging Citrogold to provide evidence and make arguments to the contrary. In the entity's statement, in fact, they admit to being surprised by the step taken by the registrar.
The Nadorcott-Tango conflict could come to an end in South Africa
This legal process taking place in South Africa could be decisive in the ongoing conflict between the Club of Protected Plant Varieties and Eurosemillas on whether the Tango variety is essentially derived or not from the Nadorcott.
While so far all requests from Citrogold and the CVVP to stop the multiplication and marketing of Tango, owned by Eurosemillas, have been rejected, if the registration of the Nadorcott in South Africa is eventually cancelled, it would no longer be protected and there would no longer be any ground to claim the Tango royalties in that country.
