TRADE AND MARKE T ING European potato breeders miss out on 30 million euros every year EUROPATAT 2010 The general meeting adopted a resolution in Angers to continue looking into the possibility of direct company membership. At this moment, only national potato trade organisations can become members of Europatat. A start towards direct membership was made by a working party headed by chairman Kees van Arendonk. The idea of direct membership for businesses originates from the increasing interest in such a membership. Most legislation comes from the EU. The advantage for businesses is that they get information about developments in Brussels straight from Europatat. The idea is to publish a two-weekly newsletter containing short and compact information about any developments. Direct business membership has the advantage for Europatat that their financial support base becomes much bigger. Another important advantage is that the European representative can use the knowledge present within the professionalising potato trading companies. The working party will work out this plan for direct membership further. Their aim is to submit a proposal for the amendment of the Articles of Association during an extraordinary members’ meeting. After adoption, the companies can become direct members as from 2010. tries. Once plant breeders’ rights have been applied for in a country, the breeder can apply at the CPVO in all EU countries at reduced rates. Testing is then no longer necessary because the CPVO proceeds from national test results. If breeders only apply for plant breeders’ rights at the CPVO, this organisation will make use of a test infrastructure in a large number of EU countries. For potatoes, the NAK horticulture is such a test location, for example. 598 variety names protected Breeders must give a new variety a name. ‘It is very difficult to find an unused name’, acknowledges CPVO director Bart Kiewiet. He tells his Audience that for that purpose, his organi2000 4000 6000 8000 10000 12000 0 11251 The evaluation of the Phyto Directive must lead to a proper level of protection, is the opinion of Harry Arijs, head of the Harmful Organism Section of the European Commission. sation keeps a database with all the names connected to varieties. Breeders can compare names At this moment, 598 potato names and varieties are protected. The majority of the applications (196) is from the Netherlands. With 167 applications, Germany is a good second. The Netherlands also takes an important second place outside the world of potatoes. From the 26,010 varieties for which rights were requested since the mid nineties, 11,251 originate from the Netherlands. Harmful economic effects In addition to good varieties, good planting stock also requires good phytosanitary policies. Harry Arijs, head of the Harmful Organism section of the European Commission, gave an explanation in Angers of the phytosanitary system. The phyto regime has been harmonised, which makes it binding for the entire Union. The object of the directive is to keep harmful organisms not occurring in the EU outside the territory. Harmful organisms already present must be kept to a minimum. The current (2000/29/EC) directive is going to be amended, which will result in the directive no longer being focused exclusively on organisms with harmful economic effects. Harm for man and nature will also be included in the 4755 4403 1542 1504 804 681 509 172 90 76 66 52 41 22 19 7 6 3 2 2 2 1 Number of applications for breeders’ rights in the EU for all crops (Source: CPVO) 6 Potato World 2009 • number 3 NETHERLANDS GERMANY FRANCE DENMARK UNITED KINGDOM ITALY BELGIUM SPAIN SWEDEN AUSTRIA CZECH REPUBLIC POLAND IRELAND HUNGARY CYPRUS GREECE Portugal SLOVENIA LUXEMBOURG FINLAND ESTONIA MALTA SLOVAK REPUBLIC Pagina 5
Pagina 7Heeft u een clubblad, digi-magazine of digi gebruiksaanwijzingen? Gebruik Online Touch: onderwijs catalogus converteren naar een online publicatie.
Potatoworld 2009/3 Lees publicatie 13Home