Removing difficulties for red-fleshed dragon fruit LD1 to "export"

SGGPO 20/02/2023 16:48

Recently, some enterprises exporting red-fleshed dragon fruit LD1 to Japan in Long An province were suddenly stopped because they did not meet the requirements of growing area codes. In this situation, the relevant agencies have just organized a meeting between relevant parties to resolve the issue.

Some businesses exporting red-fleshed dragon fruit LD1 to Japan in Long An province were suddenly stopped because they did not meet the requirements for growing area codes.

Accordingly, the reason why LD1 red-fleshed dragon fruit cannot be exported to Japan and Korea is because recently, partners have required imported goods to have a variety protection certificate to be granted a growing area code. However, most of the LD1 red-fleshed dragon fruit growing areas of Long An do not meet this requirement, so LD1 red-fleshed dragon fruit must be brought to the market to sell...

Ms. Watanabe Masumi, Director of Yasaka Company, a dragon fruit exporter to the Japanese market, said that the red-fleshed dragon fruit variety LD1 protected by Hoang Phat Fruit Company Limited has greatly affected the company's operations.

Previously, Yasaka Company purchased dragon fruit from farmers in Long An, Tien Giang, Binh Thuan in very large quantities and currently, the company has 5 dragon fruit growing regions with an area of ​​over 300 hectares.

Recently, the company failed to export 70 tons of dragon fruit to the Japanese market due to copyright protection of the variety. The company had to stop and was forced to find an outlet at Thu Duc Agricultural Wholesale Market to sell, resulting in a loss of more than 190,000 USD. This February, the company has an order for more than 70 tons of dragon fruit to be exported to Japan. If it cannot export, the company will lose about 200,000 USD.

“If Vietnam does not properly resolve the issue of allowing private sector protection of dragon fruit varieties, investors will move to countries with more open policies, even though Vietnamese dragon fruit has advantages over other countries that also grow it. If our company cannot overcome the barrier of protecting the LD1 dragon fruit variety, the company will be forced to stop purchasing and exporting dragon fruit,” said Ms. Watanabe Masumi.

"We cannot accept the collection of dragon fruit variety protection fees from the variety protection unit. As a foreign investor, we recommend that relevant departments review the protection of this variety to support farmers, cooperatives, and dragon fruit exporting enterprises to have favorable production and trading conditions," said Ms. Watanabe Masumi.

Long An province's functional departments have also supported businesses and people a lot in negotiating with the variety protection unit.

Regarding this issue, Long An province's functional sector has also supported businesses and people a lot in negotiating with the variety protection unit.

In response to the feedback related to difficulties in exporting red-fleshed dragon fruit LD1, the Department of Crop Production, Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development has just organized a meeting between functional agencies, enterprises and a number of cooperatives and dragon fruit exporting enterprises of the three provinces of Long An, Tien Giang and Binh Thuan.

At the meeting, a representative of Hoang Phat Fruit Company Limited said that, in addition to the Japanese and Korean markets, if businesses and people need to prove traceability, the company is willing to support free copyright sharing for 5 years from now.

For the Korean and Japanese markets, any people who are growing LD1 dragon fruit varieties from the Southern Fruit Institute providing trial seedlings, the company is willing to purchase the products at reasonable prices for people, according to Japanese market standards, 20-30% higher than the market.

Hoang Phat Fruit Company has implemented trade protection for red-fleshed dragon fruit LD1 in the Japanese and Korean markets.

According to Nguyen Nhu Cuong, Director of the Department of Crop Production, the protection and transfer of protection rights are completely appropriate and in accordance with the provisions of Vietnamese law and Hoang Phat has been transparent in sharing the copyright of red-fleshed dragon fruit LD1. This is the basis for Vietnamese dragon fruit to develop in the future.

Mr. Cuong requested Hoang Phat Fruit Company to soon send a written commitment to the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development and the Department of Crop Production as well as enterprises and cooperatives producing and exporting dragon fruit to create favorable conditions for dragon fruit to be exported.

The red-fleshed dragon fruit variety LD1 was bred by the Southern Fruit Institute. In November 2016, the Institute was granted a certificate of protection for the red-fleshed dragon fruit variety LD1 by the Department of Crop Production. In 2017, the Institute transferred the protection rights for the LD1 variety to Hoang Phat Fruit Company for 5 billion VND.

It is worth mentioning that before transferring the protection rights of the LD1 dragon fruit variety to Hoang Phat Fruit Company, the Institute sold this dragon fruit variety to farmers and the farmers expanded the planting area.

Hoang Phat Fruit Company has implemented protection work to trade red-fleshed dragon fruit LD1 for the Japanese and Korean markets.

If any enterprise exports red-fleshed dragon fruit LD1 to these two markets, it must negotiate and agree on related issues with Hoang Phat Fruit Company, including dragon fruit variety protection money as in the 3-party agreement between the Southern Fruit Institute, the Department of Agriculture and Rural Development of Long An province and Hoang Phat Fruit Company on September 16, 2022.

At the same time, the issuance of growing area codes requires identifying dragon fruit varieties, so currently, many areas of red-fleshed dragon fruit LD1 of farmers and businesses are not granted growing area codes for export to the Japanese and Korean markets.

On August 17, 2022, the Government Office issued Document No. 5273/VPCP-NN to the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development conveying the Prime Minister's opinion requesting the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development to study and verify information on the transfer of research results on plant varieties in agricultural production, including the LD1 dragon fruit variety.

Source: https://www.sggp.org.vn/thao-go-kho-khan-de-thanh-long-ruot-do-ld1-xuat-ngoai-post679412.html