Illegal plant hunt

By Tania Martin
FLEMING’S Nurseries says it has lost an estimated $5 million because its propagated plants were being sold illegally by other nurseries.
The Monbulk business is Australia’s largest supplier of fruit cultivars (trees), but it has been discovered that over the past two years commercial nurseries had been selling their trees illegally.
Nurseryman Graham Fleming said the rights to propagate fruit cultivars are owned by Fleming’s under the Australian Plant Breeder’s Rights Act (PBR).
But Mr Fleming said there was thousands of fruit trees that were being grown illegally.
“We have the rights to more than 1000 different types of cultivars and if you haven’t brought them off us you haven’t brought them legally,” he said.
“We bring a variety of trees in from around the world, propagate them and sell them to orchardist.” He believes nurseries are stealing parts of plants from orchardists and illegal propagating the cultivars and selling them to the orchard industry across the country.
Mr Fleming said he had discovered the massive illegal fruit tree operation after several anonymous tip-offs.
But he said it was only recently with DNA technology that Fleming’s had been able to prove that the commercial nurseries had been stealing from them.
He said it was estimated that there are 500,000 cultivars that are being sold illegally around the country which equates to a loss of $5 million for Fleming’s as each plant is sold for $10.
Mr Fleming said illegal trees had been discovered in commercial nurseries from Swan Hill to Western Australia.
“People are stealing from us – it’s theft and these nurseries know what they are doing,” Mr Fleming said.
In September, Fleming’s decided to offer orchardists around the country an amnesty period to own up to the scam.
But the amnesty period, which started on 1 September, is now coming to an end with orchardists having just four weeks left until it closes on Monday 31 December.
Mr Fleming said the amnesty had been developed to provide orchardists with a genuine opportunity to dispose of any cultivars they are growing protected under the PBR.
He said the amnesty had been developed in a bid to assist normally honest growers to avoid serious consequences and also in the hope that orchardists will be able to give evidence against the commercial nurseries so that legal action could be taken.
“Many orchardists may feel pressured into illegal growing because their neighbour is doing it and are told that it’s easy to get away with it,” he said.
Fleming’s is currently taking civil action against two nurseries that have been involved in illegal cultivation.