Zespri calls in police to investigate illegal kiwi transfer into China
Last year the Mount Maunganui-based international fruit marketer started investigating reports that a kiwifruit licence had been sold to a third party, breaching the terms limiting transfers within a country, and it passed on that evidence to police in December, who are investigating, it said in a statement.
"The purported sale of a licence from one jurisdiction to another by a third party is a breach of Zespri's licences and plant variety rights, and potentially could give rise to allegations of fraud or misleading conduct," Zespri said. "In this case, Zespri suspects that several years ago plant material was transferred and planted in China on a relatively small scale."
"Zespri's plant variety rights are important intellectual property, developed through extensive investment over many years," Limmer said. "Although the plantings may be relatively small scale in this specific case, we have zero tolerance for any breaches that we identify, wherever they happen."
Zespri's currently assessing the tenders for 2017 Gold3 licences for 400 hectares of land and has previously said it expects to make an announcement this week.
source: m.nzherald.co.nz
