Chapter 5: Plant breeder's rights

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Plant varieties

Most PBR applications in 2024 were for new varieties of fruit crops (32.4% of total filings), non-cereal field crops (20.2%) and ornamentals (17.4%), as shown in Figure 5.4.

Figure 5.4 Top 5 plant varieties for volume of PBR filings in 2024, and high-volume varieties with the greatest relative growth and decline in 2024

Filings for non-cereal field crops increased by 47.7% in 2024, while filings for fruit crops also increased, by 42.5%.

Ornamentals have historically been the dominant filing class for new PBRs. Filings in this class had seen the greatest share of applications in 7 of the past 10 years. However, applications have declined in recent years and ornamentals is now the third largest class.

Applications in most classes are well represented between domestic and non-resident filers. Exceptions to this are fruit crops and vegetable crops, where over 80% of filings in 2024 were from non-residents. Field crops (cereals) are dominated by domestic filers, with 77.8% of applications in 2024 from residents.