The general director of Agriculture, Livestock, Fisheries and Aquaculture, Carmen Teodora Morales, stressed this week that "the Region of Murcia has been the first region to denounce the multiplication of protected varieties without the necessary license from the breeder before the Public Prosecutor's office." This was done in the framework of an event organised by the National Association of Plant Breeders (Anove).
This association brings together 50 public and private entities devoted to research in plant improvement which produce new horticultural varieties, cereals and fruit trees.
Morales also emphasized that the producing sector "is increasingly demanding more from seed production firms in order to obtain varieties that adapt to our cropping cycles and that solve phytosanitary problems by adding new resistances against fungi and viruses."
The director added that "the exporting vocation of regional agriculture also creates the demand for a greater shelf life of the product harvested, since it is consumed in places very far from where it is produced." But for all that to be possible, "we must respect the intellectual property and the rights of breeders, as that is fundamental for the maintenance of investments in plant improvement."
In the Region of Murcia there are 60 breeders that produce a total of 4,900 million seedlings. Among the most notable species are lettuce, with 42 percent (two million plants) and broccoli, with 20 percent (976,000 plants). The value of the marketed production amounts to 55 million Euro.
The horticultural sector, which accounts for 755 million Euro and 36 percent of the region's total agricultural production, "is one of the region's main economic and social pillars, with more than 50,000 hectares cultivated and 25,000 jobs generated," pointed out Morales.
Anove invoices about 1 billion Euro per year, of which 575 million correspond to the seed industry. This sector alone employs more than 2,500 people, with the majority being highly qualified and with a production ratio per worker of 230,000 Euro per year.
Source: CARM
