Sutton In Sync With Govt On Producer Boards Says Luxton

Food and Fibre Minister John Luxton today refuted claims from Jim Sutton that deregulation of the Hop Board would lead to the theft of New Zealand varieties by foreigners as scare-mongering.

"Where Mr Sutton has clearly missed the point is in the area of intellectual property. An agreement between Hort Research and the Hop Marketing Board currently prevents Hort Research from selling any hop varieties overseas without the consent of the Hop Marketing Board."

Proprietary rights are internationally protected under the International Union for the Protection of New Varieties of Plants (UPOV) convention and the associated legislation in countries which are signatories to the convention. New Zealand became a member of the UPOV in 1981.

Registration under the Plant Variety Rights Act 1987 alone cannot prevent people buying plants of protected varieties, but does provide for the owner of the proprietary rights to a variety ie Hort Research in the case of hops, to

choose who to sell plants of a registered variety to; and
recoup development costs from the buyer in the form of royalties.
"Clearly Labour have been imbibing too many hop products if this is the best that they can come up with."

"That issue aside I am pleased that Jim Sutton agrees that "on the face of it the (hop) industry is so small that statutory powers are not needed."

"This is why the Government wants to give growers the chance to do away with the current legislation. The removal of the statutory backing is intended to give industry participants the freedom to operate their business in whatever way is best for them," Mr Luxton concluded.