WINNIPEG – Farmers who multiply certified seed and sell it to others may soon be hearing from The Bureau.
Not the Federal Bureau of Investigations, but the Plant Breeders’ Rights Bureau, a new division of an international plant breeding company called Svalof Weibull.
This bureau will likely be a lot friendlier than the FBI. “Our approach is not confrontational,” said Robynne Anderson Eva, director of the bureau, based in Winnipeg.
She said the law ensuring plant breeders receive royalties from the sale of their varieties was passed in 1990, but it has taken some time for people to understand how it works.
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Peter Bonis, an agent for Svalof Weibull who helps commercialize seed varieties, said some farmers don’t realize how much time and money goes into developing new varieties.
“We are moving away from public plant breeding into private plant breeding, and private plant breeding requires a return on the investment,” Bonis said.
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“Those parties who choose to short-circuit the system are in fact stealing the monies that would be generated in the form of royalties on sales of certified seed, and that money is not available to reinvest in research,” he added.
Bonis and Anderson Eva said most people selling knock-offs of certified seed don’t know they are breaking the law.
The bureau will scan classified ads in rural newspapers for unregistered growers of varieties developed by Svalof Weibull.
It will send a “friendly letter” to the grower explaining plant breeders’ rights, and follow up with a phone call.
“If they decide to be obstinate, difficult and unpleasant about it, the act does provide that we may seek damage,” Bonis said. He added the bureau’s goal is educating offenders, not taking them to civil court.
Anderson Eva said the bureau will focus on the company’s varieties, but she said more awareness will help all players in the seed business.
Bonis added it’s hard to determine how much money in royalties is lost each year because different varieties have different royalties.
For example, he said 80 percent of the 1.3 million acres of peas planted last year came from common seed, and about one quarter of that seed was sold by unregistered growers. That works out to more than 20,000 tonnes of seed for peas alone breaking plant breeders’ rights legislation.
Bonis said because the company is low profile, it will ruffle fewer feathers than if seed distributors tried the same approach.
About 40 canola varieties on the Prairies originated at Svalof Weibull labs, Bonis said. The company has also developed many pea varieties, including Carneval.
The varieties are registered and marketed in Canada by companies including the three prairie pools, United Grain Growers, Wheat City Seeds, Brett-Young Seeds and SeCan.
Svalof Weibull also owns Newfield Seeds at Nipawin, Sask.
