East-West Seed joins International Licensing Platform for plant breeding innovations

Asia-based tropical vegetable seed company East-West Seed recently announced to join the International Licensing Platform Vegetable (ILP) for plant breeding innovations, a business association that aims to improve global access to and use of plant breeding traits for vegetables. East-West Seed is the 12th vegetable breeding company to join the platform.

East-West Seed vice chairman of the supervisory board Ard Groot and ILP chairman of the board Ben Tax signed the admission documents in the Netherlands in the presence of Chris van Winden, managing director ILP Vegetable.


The ILP was launched in 2014 following increasing discussions about patents on plant breeding traits. It aims to guarantee access to patents covering biological material for vegetable breeding and to safeguard that incentives to innovate, which depend on the availability of patent protection, remain intact.
 
“The debates regarding patents are very relevant for us and for the farmers that we serve. We embrace partnerships that benefit our industry and the availability of vegetable varieties. We think that it is of great importance to ensure access to plant breeding traits to facilitate further innovation and development. This way, we believe we can benefit the global food system and food security,” said Ard Groot.
 
Chris van Winden said, “We are happy to welcome East-West Seed as a new member to ILP. They will make all of their patents related to vegetable plant traits accessible to their fellow members under ILP conditions. Although East-West Seed has no registered patents yet, I believe that it is good for future developments to include a variety of seed breeders in our platform.”