Jan 29, 2010
Intellectual property coming up roses
by Laura CaygillThe good, old “Kiwi-made” slogan has a whole new meaning for one player in New Zealand’s floriculture industry.
Faced with a tough export market made tougher by the recession, the floriculture industry has had to think of new ways to make business bloom over the past few years.
Foodstuffs has begun stocking high quality freshly cut flowers in its supermarkets and Plant & Food Research is working on intergenic plants but it is Lyndale that is leading the charge to take Kiwi- bred plants overseas through the licensing of the intellectual property of plant development.
Over seven years the company has developed a network with the US, Europe, Australia, Japan and South Africa, taking New Zealand plants to the world.
The nursery markets its contracted growers and licenses them internationally — a cost- effective way to cover more ground without the pain of exporting.
Running the show is Lyndale’s Malcolm Woolmore, who spoke to
NBR from Paris, en route to a four- day trade fair in Essen, Germany.
New Zealand’s floriculture industry exports bulbs and seeds to 40 countries but Mr Woolmore said exporting live plants had become too difficult.
“We’re geographically challenged. We face the toughest of conditions in the world for exporting and importing — that’s just a fact we live with. So our approach was not to try to export plants but try to export the intellectual advantage that we’ve got.”
The patents last for 25 years and are in line with a convention set by the international union for the protection of new varieties of plants, to which most countries adhere. (The notable exceptions are China and the US.)
Mr Woolmore said the scheme was beginning to take off but it had been only in the last two years that the company had turned a profit on the project.
“We’re very lucky in that we don’t only represent our own products, we represent other New Zealand breeders and we go out of our way to find people.”
One of those was Dr Keith Hammett.
“Most breeders are hobbyists but he’s one of New Zealand’s few professional plant breeders,” Mr Woolmore said.
Dr Hammett is known for his sweet peas and dahlias, but also
breeds new varieties of clivias, nemesia, and helianthus.
He told NBR he was very supportive of Lyndale Nurseries’ foray into intellectual property.
“I have a high regard for them and I think they are working very hard [to make it work] ,” he said.
Top 8 Floriculture companies
Rank / Company/ Excitement rating1 Lyndale Nurseries 66.0
2 Plant and Food Research 63.0
3 Zhush 61.6
4 Green Harvest Pacific 59.7
5 Foodstuffs 55.0
6 Elibee 54.0
7 Craig Howard 50.4
8 Pacific Growers Supplies 49.0
