As the largest fresh-cut flower production base in China, Yunnan leads the nation in both annual output value and market share, with rose production being particularly prominent. To promote the widespread application of new flower varieties and safeguard the legitimate rights and interests of breeders, the protection of variety rights has consistently been a critical issue for the industry's development. In 2006, the Kunming International Flower Auction Center (referred to as "KIFA") and flower variety rights holders jointly established a mechanism for the collection and payment of variety rights usage fees. Under this agreement, a predetermined percentage of variety rights fees is collected from the sales of flower products protected by variety rights sold through the KIFA platform.
However, in recent years, with the rapid development of the e-commerce economy, some online sales platforms have adopted the exemption of variety rights usage fees as a competitive strategy, disrupting the market with low-price tactics and posing significant challenges to the variety rights protection system.
© Kunming Flora Industry Association
Against this backdrop, following active coordination among multiple stakeholders, the major Yunnan-based flower e-commerce platform "Hua Yibao" has officially joined the flower variety rights fee collection and protection system, marking a significant step toward the standardized development of the industry.
© Kunming Flora Industry Association
Hua Yibao and the Industry Association have reached a strategic cooperation agreement on the protection of patented flower varieties and the promotion of new varieties. At the launch ceremony, representatives from numerous breeding enterprises and variety agencies attended as witnesses, including Kunming Yang Yueji, Yunnan Yingmao., Brighten., Meilland International (Yunnan) Co., Ltd.,., Beijing Lan Zhong Co.Ltd., Yuxi De Ruite Flowers Co., Ltd., Yunnan Schreurs., and Dümmen Orange.
As a flower e-commerce platform in China, Hua Yibao has become a crucial hub for flower transactions, leveraging its extensive network of over 700,000 purchasers nationwide and more than 10,000 registered flower farmers.
© Kunming Flora Industry Association
According to the agreement, the two parties will engage in in-depth collaboration in areas such as intellectual property protection, market promotion, and supply chain innovation. They will jointly establish an information management platform for patented flower varieties to achieve transparency and full traceability in processes such as variety rights identification and the collection and payment of patent fees, thereby effectively safeguarding the rights and interests of breeders.
