China's SFA & MOA and European Union's CPVO Initiate Cooperation on New Plant Variety Protection
Recently, Plant Variety Protection Office of the State Forestry Administration (SFA) and Development Centre of Science and Technology under Ministry of Agriculture (MOA) of China have respectively entered into bilateral strategic agreements with Community Plant Variety Office (CPVO) of the European Union on cooperation in the area of plant variety protection. The agreements have been effective from 15 November 2017 for a term of three years (2018-2020).
According to the agreements, efforts will be directed to synergetic development of the operation and administration of the EU and Chinese plant variety protection (PVP) systems, international harmonisation through exchange of best practice and technical information, encouraging breeders to make new varieties available, and offering farmers and consumers a better access to adapted varieties meeting their needs. Also, training in Distinctness, Uniformity, Stability (DUS) testing of new varieties of plant will be provided for relevant personnel in the respective territories.
The EU and China are both the world's leading region/country, ranked number one and two respectively in 2016, in terms of number of PVP applications received at their respective PVP offices, which further underlines the significance of this cooperation initiative. In addition, the initiative is intended to facilitate China's potential move toward acceding to UPOV (International Union for the Protection of New Varieties of Plants) Convention (1991 Act).
