Fruit and Vegetable Variety Rights Trading: Shouguang's "Nasdaq" Will Land
Original title: Shouguang Establishes the First Fruit and Vegetable Variety Rights Trading Center
--Building the "Nasdaq" for Domestic Fruit and Vegetable New Variety Rights Trading
Schematic Diagram of the Operation of the Shouguang Fruit and Vegetable Variety Rights Trading Center
When it comes to selling vegetables and fruit, people often think of vegetable markets and supermarkets. What can a fruit and vegetable variety rights trading center do? The National (Yangling) Dryland Plant Variety Rights Trading Center and the National Seed Industry Scientific and Technological Achievements Property Rights Trading Platform have been established one after another, allowing many new varieties, new materials and new technologies of food crops to play a greater role. The first domestic fruit and vegetable variety rights trading center established in Shouguang also provides an authoritative and fair stage for the booming fruit and vegetable seed industry. --Editor's Note
When it comes to the stock market, the first thing everyone may think of is the United States' "Nasdaq." More than half of the stocks traded on the US market every day are traded on Nasdaq.
When it comes to the vegetable industry, the first thing everyone inevitably thinks of is Shouguang City, Shandong Province. Shouguang's vegetable industry has great influence and reputation in China and even the world, and Shouguang vegetables have forged a world industry brand.
When it comes to fruit and vegetable seedlings, Shouguang has long been known as the "Huashan" of the vegetable seed industry. "To gain a foothold in the Chinese market, one must first cross swords in Shouguang" has long become an industry consensus, and well-known seed companies and scientific research institutions at home and abroad have established R&D demonstration bases in Shouguang one after another.
Recently, the Shandong Provincial Government issued the "Reply of the People's Government of Shandong Province on Agreeing to Establish the Shouguang Fruit and Vegetable Variety Rights Trading Center." This is the first domestic equity-type trading market approved by the government featuring fruit and vegetable variety rights trading, marking that the "Nasdaq" of China's fruit and vegetable new variety rights trading will land in Shouguang.
What are the opportunities for establishing the Shouguang Fruit and Vegetable Variety Rights Trading Center, what role will it play in the transformation of achievements, and what specific services will it carry out? On these issues, the reporter interviewed relevant units and made an on-site visit to the trading center.
Fruit and Vegetable Seed Industry Increasingly Values Variety Rights Protection
Last winter, more than forty consecutive days of smoggy weather in parts of Shandong tested the crops in greenhouses. Low temperatures and little sunlight made crops less resistant and more prone to disease, thereby affecting yields. But in the greenhouse of Zhang Xiaobin's home in Zhaowangpu Village, Shengcheng Subdistrict, Shouguang City, clusters of bright red tomatoes were growing vigorously. "What we use here are all the most cutting-edge and best varieties," Zhang Xiaobin said. Zhaowangpu Village is a core village for tomato planting in Shouguang, and more than ten quite powerful seed companies conduct trials and demonstrations of new varieties here.
The phenomenon of several seed companies' cutting-edge products gathering in one village is common in Shouguang. Well-known domestic and foreign seed enterprises such as Jingyan Yinong, Delt Seed, Hazera, Rijk Zwaan and Nan'ao Luheng have established their own R&D demonstration bases in Shouguang one after another. According to Zhang Maohai, Director of the Shouguang Municipal Agriculture Bureau, more than 110 domestic enterprises and research institutes and more than 10 foreign seed enterprises have established vegetable seed R&D, seedling breeding and demonstration bases in Shouguang.
The new tomato variety "Huiteng F1" planted at Zhang Xiaobin's home is a variety for which Beijing Boshuo Seed Co., Ltd. has already applied for variety rights protection. "Shouguang is a must-contest battleground for domestic and foreign seed enterprises to seize the Chinese market," said Zhang Xiaosheng, General Manager of Beijing Boshuo. "Because competition is fierce, it is even more necessary to protect new variety rights well. The company has obtained authorization for 20 varieties."
New variety protection is the "intellectual property protection" and "patent protection" of the seed industry. Mobile phone companies often litigate in court over patent infringement, and patent wars have become one of the important means of competition among mobile phone companies. The number of patent applications can prove an enterprise's innovation strength, and patent wars often enhance an enterprise's brand awareness.
China's vegetable seed companies and R&D units are paying increasing attention to new variety rights protection. According to information released by the Plant Variety Protection Office of the Ministry of Agriculture, during the "12th Five-Year Plan" period, the number of applications for protection of new varieties of non-major crops increased by 80% compared with the "11th Five-Year Plan" period, while that for major crops was 59%.
The "Home of Vegetables" Seeks "Variety Pricing Power"
Shouguang City's annual seedling breeding capacity reaches 1.2 billion plants, and more than 60% of the country's vegetable seeds and seedlings come from Shouguang City. But in Shouguang's planting market, foreign seeds account for more than 60%.
Guojia Jin, Director of the Shandong Provincial Vegetable Engineering Technology Research Center, analyzed: "There is a lack of an effective information communication mechanism between domestic variety rights holders and seed breeding, sales and promotion enterprises, resulting in high market search costs for both sides and creating the phenomenon of 'difficulty in buying variety rights and difficulty in selling variety rights.'"
"If the weak position in the field of seed industry intellectual property rights cannot be reversed, the beneficiaries of the huge market share will mostly be multinational seed enterprises," Guojia Jin said. Building a variety rights trading platform can integrate the seed industry, agriculture, information, technology, services and other industries into one to the greatest extent, form a synergy through fusion, and be conveniently and efficiently transformed into real productivity, improve the competitiveness of the seed industry, agriculture, science and technology, information, services and other industries, and raise innovation and flexibility to a new strategic height.
"Building a plant variety rights trading platform in Shouguang, through innovation-driven development, demonstration guidance, centralized trading, rapid promotion, and radiating and driving effects, will further accelerate the transformation of scientific and technological achievements in the seed industry and make every effort to build Shouguang's agricultural seed industry silicon valley," said Zhang Hongyu, Party Secretary of the Shouguang Municipal Financial Office, who is responsible for preparing the variety rights trading center. Shouguang has become China's center for fruit and vegetable variety R&D, breeding, promotion and sales as well as a distribution center for vegetable product production. But what does not match this is that Shouguang, Shandong lacks the right to speak on variety rights prices. Establishing a variety rights trading center in Shouguang will help realize the price discovery function of variety rights and promote the formation of a pricing center for fruit and vegetable variety rights in China.
This is not only the case in the fruit and vegetable seed industry, but also in China's seed industry as a whole. The "Opinions of the State Council on Deepening the Reform of the Seed Industry System and Improving Innovation Capacity" pointed out: establish a public trading platform and custody center for scientific and technological achievements in the seed industry, formulate trading management measures, and prohibit private transactions. In 2014, the National Seed Industry Scientific and Technological Achievements Property Rights Trading Platform was established, realizing "fair, just and open" trading of seed industry scientific and technological achievements property rights.
Online and Offline, Linking "Variety Rights" and "Product" Transactions
"The platform takes fruit and vegetable variety rights trading as its core, and at the same time can realize an information query and retrieval system and information services for the coexistence of variety rights for flowers, forest trees, field crops and others," said Wang Yuejuan, General Manager of the Shouguang Fruit and Vegetable Variety Rights Trading Center.
"The trading center mainly carries out 'three types of transactions' and provides 'five services,'" Wang Yuejuan introduced. The three types of transactions mainly refer to transactions of the right to apply for variety rights, transactions of ownership rights, and transactions of use rights. The five services mainly include variety rights information release services, variety rights identification and evaluation services, variety rights registration and custody services, new variety display and promotion services, and agricultural technology promotion services.
"The trading center adopts a market-oriented operation and enterprise-based management model," Wang Yuejuan said. With the high-quality platform and services provided by the trading center, variety rights holders and owners of other scientific research achievements are attracted to enter the market for trading, and transaction prices are basically formed by market bidding. The trading center operates independently and is responsible for its own profits and losses.
The center is building a website and a web client. Wang Yuejuan said: "Using internet trading, there is no need to go to the site, no need for face-to-face contact, and it can be completed wherever there is internet, convenient and fast."