Several newly bred Japanese strawberries and cherries, which are sweeter and juicier than previous varieties in the market, are increasingly copied. This is a direct infringement on intellectual property rights. The Japanese government has decided to help countries in Southeast Asia, an area that especially lacks protections for new plant varieties, enforce intellectual property rights for newly developed varieties of farm produce.
The country's Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries will send experts to eight Southeast Asian countries, such as Thailand and Indonesia, to help devise laws and review processes so that they can join the International Union for the Protection of New Varieties of Plants, or UPOV.
Japan, China and South Korea have agreed to cooperate with ASEAN to develop by 2027 a system for the bloc that meets global standards for protecting the rights of plant breeders. The three East Asian countries are among the 75 nations and jurisdictions in UPOV, whose members provide robust protections against unauthorized cultivation or sales.
The Ministry of Agriculture estimates that Japanese strawberry farmers lose up to 4.4 billion yen ($39.1 million) per year from lost opportunities due to South Korean exports.
Source: asia.nikkei.com