China replants Muscadine grapes to “save tens of billions a year” Japan: unscrupulous | NOWnews Today’s News | LINE TODAY

[NOWnews今日新聞] China has long been a well-known country for copycats. Previous reports have pointed out that China is sophisticated in its ability to imitate brand-name goods and industrial products, and the quality can even be comparable to genuine products. However, not only bags and parts are subject to copycats, but even the Japanese fruit “Muscat Grape Haruo” has been reported to have been replanted and planted in China and South Korea. However, Japan has not received any royalties or royalties for intellectual property rights. Not only has it been a year The loss exceeded 10 billion yen, which caused Japan to face the dilemma of protecting intellectual property rights in fruit.

The sweet and delicious Muscadine grape has always been popular with the public because it has no seeds and can be eaten with the skin. “France” quoted the “AFP” report as saying that Muscadine grape is one of the fruit varieties that Japan spent 33 years and put a lot of effort into developing. It is sometimes sold in department stores in Tokyo for 100 euros per kilogram.

Yuki Nakamura, a fruit farmer who grows Muscadine grapes in Ueda City, Nagano Prefecture, said that the most amazing thing about “Haruo Muscadine grapes” is that each grape berry is very large, very sweet and not greasy. However, Yuki Nakamura originally wanted to export Muscadine grapes to places such as Hong Kong or Thailand, but found that local people could find knockoff versions of “Muscat grapes grown in China and South Korea” on the Internet, and the prices were much cheaper than in Japan.

China and South Korea have successfully replanted Qingwang Muscat grapes in their respective countries, producing grapes that look and taste almost the same. Although there are still differences in quality in comparison, the price of the “genuine Muscat grapes” is the “copycat version” two to three times. As early as 2016, the first copycat version of “Qingwang Muscadine Grape” was discovered in China. Previously, Japanese media reported that China renamed the “copycat version of Muscat Grape” to “Sunshine Rose” and “Xiangyin Jade”. On sale, “In Japanese high-end department stores, 1 kilogram of this type of Muscadine grape costs more than 10,000 yen, but in China, 1 kilogram only costs 400 to 600 yen.”

The report pointed out that because Japan did not register this grape variety abroad within the time limit stipulated in international rules, there is no legal way to force China or South Korea to stop planting Muscadine grapes or pay intellectual property rights. Japanese producers “made a big mistake out of naivety” and did not expect that other countries would have the idea of ​​replanting Haruo Muscadine grapes. Japan’s Ministry of Agriculture also admitted that it is difficult to make farmers realize that fruits should be linked to intellectual property rights.

Due to China’s very strict quarantine regulations, Japan cannot export grapes to China. However, if Beijing recognizes that Japan has the patent rights for the Haruo Muscat grape, it may have to pay Japan more than 10 billion yen in royalties every year.

In addition to Haruo Muscat grapes, Japanese strawberries, cherries, and citrus fruits have all been replanted abroad, which also made them discover the importance of intellectual property rights. In addition, in order to prevent the same thing from happening again, starting from 2020, Japan will prohibit taking seeds and seedlings of protected varieties in Japan abroad, otherwise they will face severe penalties of up to 10 years in prison.

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