[Global Times reporter Zhao Juejun and Li Xuanmin] Russia, which is being sanctioned by the West in turn, is currently locked in a "seed war" with the West. Western seed companies headed by Germany's Bayer have made no secret threats to stop supplying Russian seeds and other seeds next year.
Although Russia, a major grain-producing country, is an important grain exporter in the world, its seeds still face the problem of being "stuck in the neck" by the West, which is a wake-up call for many countries.
As far as China is concerned, a number of experts interviewed by a reporter from the Global Times said that Chinese seeds have been used in rice, wheat, soybeans and other "Chinese grains", but there are still some crops that still rely on imports for their provenance. Including citrus, apple, strawberry and other common fruits on the table.
Seeds are called "agricultural chips". In the context of seeds becoming a new weapon, to what extent does China currently rely on foreign countries for fruit varieties?
How to hold fruit seeds firmly in your hands?
The Global Times reporter conducted an investigation.
Citrus, cherry, kiwi...
Relevant statistics show that my country's fruit tree industry has developed rapidly, with the cultivation area and output ranking first in the world, but a large number of high-quality varieties come from abroad.
Wang Lirong, a researcher at the Fruit Tree Research Institute of the Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences and the head of the National Horticultural Germplasm Resource Bank, said that according to the analysis of the cultivated area of tree species and the proportion of varieties from different sources, it was found that my country's local varieties, domestic varieties, and foreign imported varieties accounted for 30% of the cultivated area of fruit trees. 30%, 30% and 40%.
Although the market share of independent varieties of resources in jujube and peach is over 80%, the market share of imported varieties of foreign tree species such as apples and grapes is 50% to 90%.
In particular, the "Fuji" apple variety originating in Japan has a domestic planting area of up to 80%.
Professor Gong Ronggao, deputy dean of the School of Horticulture at Sichuan Agricultural University, is an expert in the field of sweet cherries and citrus cultivation. In an interview with a reporter from the Global Times, he said that a considerable part of these two fruits grown in China are imported from abroad.
Taking Sichuan tangerine as an example, the varieties with the largest planting area in the region, "Chunjian" and "Shiranui", both come from Japan.
Although there are also local tangerines planted, the area is relatively small, and the market share is extremely low.
The dominance of introduced varieties is also evident in sweet cherry cultivation.
Sweet cherries mainly refer to European sweet cherries, commonly known as "cherries". Since the introduction of related varieties into China in the last century, they have gradually expanded from Shandong to many regions of the country.
Therefore, most of the varieties of sweet cherries come from the United States, Ukraine, Japan, Russia and other countries. At present, the main varieties of Sichuan, such as "Red Light", "Labins" and "Binku", are selected or bred on the basis of foreign varieties. imported.
Gong Ronggao said that although domestic fruit germplasm resources are abundant, there is a gap between the breeding of fine varieties and foreign ones. The quality of some domestically selected fruit varieties is generally inferior to that of foreign varieties, and the recognition degree of consumers is also lower.
A typical example is the kiwi.
Statistics show that kiwifruit originated in China. After it was introduced to New Zealand in the early 20th century, local agricultural research institutions successfully cultivated varieties suitable for commercialization and renamed it "kiwifruit", becoming one of New Zealand's most well-known export products.
A report recently released by Research And Markets, an international market research organization, shows that in the global fruit and vegetable seed market, foreign companies such as Monsanto in the United States, Nunhems in the Netherlands, and Rixwan in the Netherlands are the main players. Failed to enter the leading echelon.
Japan, New Zealand, etc. tighten seed exports
The dependence of some fruits on imported varieties means that growers have to pay more for the purchase of seedlings, and the price of fruits for consumers will also rise. The "red face" strawberry.
However, with the expansion of domestic planting area, the prices of these fruits are gradually declining.
However, in recent years, countries including Japan and New Zealand have paid more attention to the protection of intellectual property rights of seeds and carried out relevant legislation.
Although the intellectual property protection period of varieties bred in the last century, such as "Fuji" apples, has ended, and there is no "stuck neck" problem, for new varieties, legal disputes may arise if they are planted without authorization from foreign seed companies. And will once again affect the domestic fruit prices.
Since April 1 last year, Japan has implemented a new "Seed and Seedling Law" to prevent Japan's excellent varieties from flowing overseas, and strive to achieve the export value of agricultural products reaching 5 trillion yen (about 248.5 billion yuan) by 2030. The government targets, while stipulating that individuals who illegally bring seeds and seedlings abroad face up to 10 years in prison or a fine of up to 10 million yen.
Subsequently, the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries of Japan released a list of 1,975 seedlings that are prohibited from being brought out of Japan, including "Sunshine Rose" grapes, Fukuoka Prefecture "Kamwang" strawberries, and Hokkaido "Mengmei" rice and other brands.
Another incident that caught the attention of the industry occurred with the yellow heart kiwi.
In 2018, New Zealand Zespri, a giant kiwifruit production company, discovered that Chinese fruit farmer Gao Haoyu had brought back two canes of yellow-hearted kiwifruit from a New Zealand farm and sold them to Chinese growers. Zespri filed a lawsuit.
In February 2020, the High Court of Auckland, New Zealand, finally sentenced Gao Haoyu, his wife and the company under their name to pay Zespri 15 million New Zealand dollars, or about 65.16 million yuan.
Seeds are called "agricultural chips", and every good "chip" is hard-earned.
Taking Zespri's kiwifruit cultivation process as an example, the company has conducted research on more than 50,000 potential new varieties, of which 40 varieties have entered the planting test, and finally only 3 varieties have entered the pre-commercialization test. Breeding fruit varieties is not easy.
Gong Ronggao also cited sweet cherries as an example. Unlike rice and other field crops, the breeding cycle of sweet cherries and other fruits is longer, usually taking more than ten or even twenty years.
Therefore, countries and enterprises will strive to protect their seed intellectual property rights.
Gong Ronggao told the Global Times reporter that it is becoming more and more difficult to import high-quality fruit varieties from abroad, and countries are protecting the intellectual property rights of seeds through legislation or other means.
Not only does this lead to higher costs for introducing foreign varieties, but it can also lead to lawsuits if unauthorized varieties are grown abroad and sold to foreign markets.
How to get rid of dependencies
Li Xinhai, director of the Institute of Biology, Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, told the Global Times reporter that although the research and development capabilities of domestic seeds have gradually increased in recent years and their market share has steadily increased, there is still a big gap between them and foreign seed companies.
Gong Ronggao also introduced that although institutions mainly based on universities and scientific research institutes were also carrying out fruit breeding research in the early stage, the number of varieties introduced and screened was large, and there were not many excellent new varieties cultivated through hybridization and other means. dependency.
Gong Ronggao believes that domestic fruit breeding started relatively late, and the investment of funds and breeding personnel is relatively insufficient, which requires us to further increase the proportion of independent intellectual property rights in fruit breeding, including variety selection, resource utilization, etc., and we need to get rid of the past mainly introduction. situation.
Gong Ronggao suggested that policy and financial support for fruit breeding should be increased to ensure that the work of variety selection and breeding can continue to advance.
In addition, it is also necessary to strengthen the training of relevant talents.
More importantly, the breeding cycle of high-quality fruit varieties is long, which requires all parties to not only focus on short-term benefits, but also to develop a new variety evaluation system.