Dutch Minister supports a differentiated approach on PVP

In a letter issued on 20 September 2012 (now published in an unofficial English translation), Henk Bleker, the Dutch Minister for Agriculture and Foreign Trade, stated that “UPOV 1991 cannot be applied to all developing countries but that a different approach is desired.”

He further said that the Netherlands will “urge for greater scope for the private and non commercial use exemption in UPOV 1991 than is currently the case. This will allow small farmers that use protected varieties to trade their surpluses on the market and exchange seed among themselves”.

The letter was a reaction to the main conclusions and recommendations of the report entitled “Harnessing Intellectual Property Rights for Development Objectives”. The report is available in an open access format here (Part 2 is on seeds).