{"id":67817,"date":"2014-05-16T14:18:35","date_gmt":"2014-05-16T04:18:35","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/southburnett.com.au\/news2\/?p=67817"},"modified":"2020-11-30T16:15:19","modified_gmt":"2020-11-30T06:15:19","slug":"truce-declared-in-peanut-war","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/southburnett.com.au\/news2\/2014\/05\/16\/truce-declared-in-peanut-war\/","title":{"rendered":"Truce Declared In Peanut ‘War’"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Sonie Crumpton, from G. Crumpton & Sons, and John Howard, from PCA, at this morning’s peanut industry briefing … a negotiated settlement has ended legal action<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

May 16, 2014<\/strong><\/p>\n

A commercial dispute between the three largest players in the Australian peanut industry – the Peanut Company of Australia and independent shellers Crumptons and Clifton Trading – appears to have been resolved.<\/p>\n

The dispute, which had included legal action launched by PCA, centred on access to new varieties of peanuts.<\/p>\n

It revolved around Plant Breeders Rights (PBR) \u2013 the intellectual property rights which give a plant breeder exclusive control over seed and harvested material of a new plant variety \u2013 and the compulsory grower levy scheme which has partially funded a peanut breeding program led by PCA.<\/p>\n

Last September, Member for Nanango Deb Frecklington and Agriculture Minister John McVeigh urged the parties to try mediation to resolve the dispute, which had threatened to split the industry.<\/p>\n

PCA Chief Executive Officer John Howard told southburnett.com.au<\/strong> today the government-sponsored mediation had been a catalyst to clarifying a way forward.<\/p>\n

He said the last signatures on the agreement had been signed yesterday.<\/p>\n

Peanut growers were briefed on the history of the Australian Peanut Genetic Improvement Program, which had been at the heart of the dispute, at a field day held at the DAFF Kingaroy Research Station this morning.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Mr Howard said that prior to 2007 there had been two completely different programs running: a GRDC \/ DPI breeding program which was mainly focusing on breeding suitable dryland Virginia varieties; and PCA’s introduction program, focusing on importing Runner types for high-input areas.<\/p>\n

However, in 2007 the then-DPI had decided it would no longer continue with its program.<\/p>\n

“PCA took up running it,” Mr Howard said. “Without that, there would have been no breeding program in Australia.”<\/p>\n

Funding was supplied by PCA (67.6pc), GRDC (22.6pc) and DAFF (9.8pc).<\/p>\n

“All parties brought germplasm assets to this new program,” Mr Howard said.<\/p>\n

The dispute arose over Plant Breeding Rights and growers’ access to varieties in this program.<\/p>\n

However, a new five-year licence agreement has now been negotiated between PCA and Crumptons, and PCA and Clifton to resolve the tension.<\/strong><\/p>\n

The only exclusion will be a two-year period for any introduced variety commercially released that was part of the PCA program prior to July 2007.<\/p>\n

PCA is recognised as the exclusive PBR licence holder for the international varieties it has licensed, as well as the GRDC \/ DAFF PBR (from the pre-2007 breeding program) and the post-2007 PCA\/GRDC\/DAFF program.<\/p>\n

All growers will need to have a sub-licence agreement to grow any of the PBR varieties.<\/p>\n

Shellers will have a sub-licence and can issue a licence to their growers.<\/p>\n

Seed is not part of the licence agreement.<\/p>\n

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