In the European mushroom industry, the focus of investments in the last decades has been almost exclusively on economy of scale to reduce costs. Hardly any new product generated has been aimed at increasing the share in the food market for mushrooms. Breeding new types of varieties is an important way to generate new products. For a number of other crops (tomatoes), this has been a way to increase consumption. Breeding/seed companies invest a considerable amount of money in the generation of new varieties adjusted to changing market demands. This benefits all partners in the chain and investments are awarded by a system for the protection of plant varieties, the Plant Breeders’ Rights, as implemented and applied in Europe by the Community Plant Variety Office. This allows the exclusive production of the new variety or to license the production to others on royalty basis (= ROI).
Plant variety protection also applies to mushrooms and a number of new varieties have been granted Breeders Rights. The numbers, however, are far less compared to crops with a comparable production size. One of the main reasons is that making illegal copies of new mushroom varieties is easily done and has been a common practice. Illegal copying is still ongoing and a clear example is the sporeless oyster mushroom for which copies are generated in a number of countries by companies that have no license to produce spawn of this variety. With the exception of the new brown variety of Amycel, all genuine new mushroom varieties have been generated with a co-investment of public money. That was the case for the Horst Us and for the sporeless oyster mushroom that was released a few years ago. However, there is no public money for the development of new varieties anymore, so that investments must now come from companies within the industry. A number of spawn companies invest in new varieties, but are reluctant to market them because infringements of varieties protected with Plant Breeders Rights still occur. The industry as a whole can benefit from new varieties and all stakeholders along the value chain should, therefore, be aware of obligations that come with Breeders Rights and support the system. Breaking the law prevents investments in new varieties being made and thus will hamper the industries ability to innovate and expand its market. Thus everyone in the mushroom chain should contribute actively to the prevention of illegal copying.
Thank you for article to Sylvan!
Mushroom Business
Anton Sonnenberg, WUR
