CVVP ramps up inspections against illegal Nadorcott plantings

Spain’s Club of Protected Plant Varieties (CVVP) has said it will increase efforts to protect its members against anyone planting or grafting the Nadorcott mandarin variety illegally before the end of its official protection period.

The European plant variety right for Nadorcott expires on 31 December 2029. Until that date, the variety remains fully protected, and any commercial planting, grafting, or tree expansion requires a valid license.

The Nadorcott mandarin (originally called Afourer) is of Moroccan origin and was the first citrus variety to apply for and obtain registration in the EU at the Community Plant Variety Office. In practice, this means that only those who have paid the royalties demanded by the breeders can produce it.

The work carried out by CVVP has been essential in this regard, promoting the variety and monitoring and reporting unlicensed producers who ignored warnings and notices, believing they would face no consequences. This has resulted in several lawsuits that ended in significant fines and compensation payments, in addition to the need to eradicate illegal plantations.

According to CVVP, some farmers are starting to plant Nadorcott illegally in the mistaken belief that the relatively proximity of the end of its protection period means they will not face any consequences.

“Considering that citrus cultivation operates on a long timescale, unlike horticulture, which involves months of growth, some believe – and act, or advise – that grafting a field with Nadorcott buds or planting seedlings of the variety will take at least two or three years to reach production. This would put them in a very favourable position by 2029, or even just before, ready to harvest significant crops that would still command high prices,” CVVP said.

“Those who reason this way are simply trying to get ahead of the curve. Because it’s foreseeable that, as each successful protected variety loses its exclusivity in the registry, the expansion of new plantations will multiply rapidly, which could quickly lead to new surpluses and price drops.

“So, if instead of planting or grafting after the 29th, in compliance with the law, it’s done before, those who try it gain time. Or so they think, because they can be caught, and there’s no shortage of resources; in fact, they’re becoming more numerous.”

As explained by Luis Trujillo and Reyes Moratal, president and director of CVVP respectively, the organisation will continue to systematically defend the interests of its members or licensees, of Nadorcott and the others it controls (Leanri, Earlina, Clemenlola, Red Lina, etc.).

“The objective is to extend the exclusivity period for legal Nadorcott producers as much as possible; to achieve this, they must prevent those who try to get ahead of the competition without a license,” they said.

To this end, CVVP has committed to redouble inspection efforts across the board, carrying out persistent direct field inspections in all production areas, using constantly updated satellite and drone imagery, and monitoring markets, commercial areas, and final points of sale.

“And all this work will not cease at the end of 2029, but will continue for several years afterward, as long as it can be proven that someone acted improperly when they were not allowed to,” Trujillo and Moratal stated.

They pointed out that even years later, it can be proven whether a particular graft was carried out before 2029 by using branch rings, aerial photographs from the SIGPAC and Cadastre systems, and even the mandatory records kept by each producer.

“There have been cases where, faced with the defendant’s forgetful statements, the judge retorted something like, ‘Don’t tell me that with your volume of business you don’t keep records and know who did this or that task and when’. Now, field logs are mandatory. And faced with the possible excuse that ‘it’s not that variety, it’s the other one’, there are methods based on molecular markers,” they said.

CVVP warned farmers considering acting illegally not to get ahead of themselves thinking they can get away with it. “The legal producers of Nadorcott are going to try to extend the lifespan of their variety as much as possible, and to that end, they won’t allow outsiders to enter the market prematurely under any circumstances,” it said.