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Lawsuit: Spain stole Israeli fruit
Dudi Goldman. Published: 02.16.09, 14:53 / Israel Money

Citrus Growers’ Association files lawsuit against Spanish growers accused of stealing branches of patented Israeli development of new tangerine species, costing local growers some $49,000 a year

Throughout the world, Israel is considered a superpower when it comes to the development of new citrus fruit species, but now, Israeli farmers are accusing their Spanish counterparts of stealing a new species, and have recently filed a lawsuit against them.

Commercial spying attempts have lead the developers of the new species to grow their fruits in hidden fields, "but afterwards the species grew in an open orchard," said Chai Benyamini, secretary-general of Israel's Citrus Growers’ Association.

"The Spanish send people who enter the orchard for a minute, cut off a citrus branch from the new species, and send it to Spain, and this is how we lose some NIS 200,000 ($48,900) a year," he explained.

The main species in question is a new breed of tangerine, called Or, that was developed in Israel and has been patented.

Advantages of the new seedless species include a better taste, a thinner peel that can be removed more easily and quickly, lower water requirements, and a longer shelf life.

Last year some 25,000 tons of the new fruit were marketed and valued at some $25 million.

Thanks to its many advantages, the new species has become popular in supermarkets throughout Europe, but since the development was patented by Israel, European retailers must purchase it from Israel or from companies that have bought the rights to market the product in Europe.

"The species is currently planted on an area of 20,000 dunum (about 5,000 acres) in Israel," said Tal Amit of Israel's Plants Council.

According to Amit, the council filed lawsuits in Spanish and French courts, and a trial is currently underway in France against Spanish agents accused of stealing the Israeli species and trying to grow it themselves.

Fruit cultivar espionage is nothing new. Various countries all over the world have been doing it, including Israel too. Industrial espionage is so easy to do and is not detectable during the act, only after the fact. For example, who can prevent anyone from buying a patented cultivar from big box retail stores, and chop them off for scionwood and ship outside the country?

While we have these accusations of intellectual property stealing from one country and another, one can argue that the USA itself used to collect tremendous amount of fruit cultivars all over the world without paying some royalty to any of the source countries (but the US have been giving various aids in other forms). For example, many of the US Citrus cultivars have originated from Asia, mostly from China. These fruit cultivars were collected by USDA agents all over the world, or brought by immigrants, and mostly before world war II or right after, when most countries haven't recognized yet the value of their native germplasm, and then much later on, to date, through diplomacy and proper quarantine procedures and exchange programs. And we all know that Citrus is not native to California as well as other fruit crops but now we protect the industry with all our means.

But to the credit of the USA, in return for the cultivar collection, the US has open access policy for disseminating or exchanging cultivars with other countries, most of the cultivars it has collected in its germplasm. The US plays a role in keeping and maintaining the various germplasm, and thus have been serving as live repository of various cultivars, complete with utmost care for the prevention of the spread of pests and diseases, something that none of the other countries have invested big amount of resources way back then. Only the last few decades have the various countries tried to build and maintain their own repositories. And also, about a couple of years ago we have completed a dooms day germplasm vault bank, mostly from seeds, when the nations have joined forces to have a common goal.

But there are two things being discussed here with respect to cultivars. One is that we have cultivars developed by individuals or companies that spent real money in Research and Development and should be compensated through the use of patent system. This is the case reported above.

The other is that we have the cultivars collected in the germplasm, which are non-patent from previous collections where various countries participate in the exchanges, maintenance of the germplasm and other common reciprocal goals.

Good thread. I would just add, that the early plant hunters, like the USDA's Frank Meyers, and many of the English hunters, were collecting plants around the world, long before plant patents. What these early hunters were doing was legal. My guess, the only sure method for the Israeli's to prove 100 percent that the Spanish growers are growing their patented citrus is by DNA. - Millet (1,432-)

I agree. We owe some of our very important industries to these early fruit hunters, and in a way have helped preserve other cultivars which would have been lost. In the same way, today's collectors could be tapped as additional resource backup when crisis strikes, ie, when greening has invaded California, I will call on Millet and beg for greening-free budwood, if it would be legal by then.