The Blueberry News – July 2019

32 | The Blueberry News FloridaBlueberryGrowers.org

business

A BERRY Good Deal

Benefits of International Licensing for

Florida Blueberry Growers

International producers pay millions

of dollars each year for the right to grow

University of Florida blueberry varieties.

That money funds what I consider the finest

blueberry breeding program in the world

• a program focused on helping Florida

blueberry growers.

Without it, you would not have Dr. Patricio

Muñoz making advances in machine

harvestability, disease resistance, timing of

production, berries that taste good to people

but not to gall midges, and yes, yield. Nor

would Muñoz have the labs, computers, staff,

and fields to seek solutions to your challenges.

You would not have extension coordinator

Doug Phillips dedicated exclusively to the

Florida blueberry industry.

International trade rules have created an

uneven playing field, already tilted toward

international producers who enjoy low labor

costs and government subsidies.

By helping the UF Institute of Food and

Agricultural Sciences build a better berry,

licensing revenue – 87.5 percent of which

comes from outside the U.S. – pays for

Florida to invent its way to international

competitiveness.

The best part: The international licensees

are for the most part not your competitors.

Of the millions of pounds of blueberries

the U.S. imports from Mexico annually, for

example, only 1.63 percent are from UF/IFAS

cultivars.

Even that small percentage is increasingly

unlikely to compete with Florida fruit. New

licenses negotiated by Florida Foundation

Seed Producers, a UF/IFAS non-profit

organization, prohibit international growers

from exporting to the U.S. during your main

production window.

By contrast, U.S. taxpayers paid for the

development of “Biloxi.” It is one of the most

widely planted varieties in Mexico (and not

a UF/IFAS variety), but it’s not protected by

licensing. Mexican producers pay nothing to

the U.S. for its use, and there is no limit on the

amount of production.

Unfortunately, international licensing has

been portrayed in some circles as harmful to

Florida farmers. In reality, licensing is done

with the Florida farmer in mind. The revenue

is the fuel for the innovation that created the

Florida blueberry industry and will keep it

profitable for decades to come.

PRODUCERS IN OTHER nations pay for much

of the science that supports the Florida blueberry

i n du st r y.

___ __

CREDIT

by JACK PAYNE

BIO: Jack Payne is the University of Florida’s senior vice president for

agriculture and natural resources and leader of the Institute of Food

and Agricultural Sciences and can be reached at [email protected].