The Spanish Guardia Civil has seized 85,000 almond trees from a nursery in the municipality of Huelma. The owner is under investigation for intellectual property crime, as the exploitation of these varieties corresponds exclusively to a company in possession of a State contract. The intervention has taken place in several plots, given the suspicion that the cultivation of protected plant varieties was carried out in them.
The Guardia Civil carried out an inspection of the facilities in order to collect samples and determine the crop variety. The agents forwarded them to the laboratory of the agrogenomics research centre. The laboratory report confirmed that 16 of the samples belonged to protected plant varieties. As a result, 35,000 plants of the Vairo and Contanti varieties, as well as 35,000 plants of the Soleta and Diamar varieties and 15,000 of the Marta variety were seized.
According to the Guardia Civil, the seized plants would have reached a market value of 434,995 Euro.
Source: sevilla.abc.es
