A potato grower from Antwerp (Belgium) has been sentenced by the Antwerp Court of Appeal to pay a large fine and compensation to Breeders Trust. This is reported by the watchdog for the enforcement of plant breeders' rights.
The potato grower owes Breeders Trust compensation of more than 90.000 euros in lost income. This is due to the failure to register his acreage of farm seed potatoes of the plant breeders' rights varieties Asterix and Fontane.
Breeders Trust has suffered damage
The Court of Appeal also established that Breeders Trust also suffered other damage, such as investigation costs and reputational damage. For this, the grower has to pay compensation, which is based on the advantage that the grower had from an area of more than 230 hectares at Fontane. An expert appointed by the Court of Appeal will have to determine the level of the profit for the years 2011, 2012 and 2013 in the short term.
The farmer was also ordered to pay interest on the full compensation from the day of the summons in 2013. Finally, the Court of Appeal imposed a penalty of 2.000 euros per hectare per year if the farmer concerned in the future complies with the strike order from the judgment. would not comply.
Retroactively
Geert Staring, director of Breeders Trust, responded to the case: 'On the basis of the records, which we seized in 2013, the Court of Appeal has been able to establish that over a long period of time no registration has been made of more than 460 hectares of farm seed potatoes. Therefore, no fair compensation has been paid.'
According to the watchdog, clear agreements have been made in the sector agreement between Breeders Trust and Agrofront. 'If an individual grower subsequently believes that they can ignore these agreements, it can cost a lot of money. Also often with retroactive effect, as has been the case here. It can therefore be determined for previous years for which varieties and areas no fair compensation has been paid.'
Go back to 2009
The farmer had also not fulfilled earlier contractual agreements. As a result, for the Asterix variety, the cultivation year even went back to 2009. 'At that time we made good agreements with the Belgian farmers' unions, in which we said that we would enforce them. This is to prevent that only the benevolent would pay and those who have "forgotten" can easily escape. That would be unfair to the growers who do comply with their legal obligations.'
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