New Zealand’s Plant Variety Rights (PVR) scheme has encouraged plant breeders to invest in developing new cultivars. The Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment (MBIE) commissioned BERL to research the PVR scheme's economic and public-good benefits.
The report concluded that the PVR-protected cultivars bring significant economic gains to New Zealand’s primary sector by incentivising investment in improved cultivars that lead to better performance, higher productivity, and lower costs.
Of the $2.9 billion worth of export revenue generated by kiwifruit exports from March 2023, two billion was attributed to PVR-protected cultivars.
PVR-protected apple cultivars generated an estimated total of over $216 million in export revenue during the year ending June 2022, while PVR-protected vegetable cultivars contributed approximately $635 million to domestic GDP.
Some of the key benefits that the scheme promotes include higher-yielding varieties that offer increased food production and security, reduced land pressure, efficient use of resources, and enhanced profitability and efficiency of farms. Disease-resistant cultivars and cultivars resistant to pests, diseases, and adverse environmental conditions are less reliant on chemical inputs and reduce growers' costs.
Developing new cultivars for high-value export markets supports New Zealand’s efforts to be competitive in the global market. The scheme's users are expected to cover the full cost of operating the Plant Variety Rights Office (PVRO). However, the PVRO is operating at a deficit, and a new regime must be in place for 2025-26.
For large breeders, the move to a total cost recovery model is unlikely to significantly impact the decision to develop and register new cultivars. Smaller commercial and recreational breeders (backyard breeders) are likely to be impacted by any move to recover the total costs as their ability to recover these costs is limited, given that they cater to a smaller market.
Any reduction in domestic breeding would likely reduce innovation and competition and make fewer domestically bred plant cultivars available.
Increasing PVR fees would cause agents and importers to become more selective in what they bring and reduce the cultivars they import.
