Pepsi ready to end potato fight with farmers, with a rider

PepsiCo India Holdings Private Limited said on Friday that it will withdraw the legal case it had filed against Gujarat farmers if they stop cultivating the FC5 variety. In an oral submission before the commercial court in Ahmedabad, the company said the farmers may enter into an agreement with the company to procure seeds of the registered variety from it and sell back the produce to it.The company has registered separate cases against nine farmers of the state so far for allegedly using its registered variety of potato. The Indian arm of the American firm claimed that the farmers grew FC5 potato, for which it has obtained exclusive PVP (plant variety protection) rights in India in 2016 (valid till 2031), infringing upon its rights under the PPV and FR Act, 2001. PepsiCo sought damages worth Rs 1.5 crore each from four farmers of Sabarkantha district. Five other farmers were sued by PepsiCo in North Gujarat under similar charges in 2017-18.Appearing before the commercial court, where four of them have been accused of using Pepsi-Co’s registered variety of potato seed, the farmers sought time till June 12.“PepsiCo India has proposed to amicably settle with people who were unlawfully using seeds of its registered variety. PepsiCo has also proposed that they may become part of its collaborative potato farming programme,” said a PepsiCo spokesperson.One of the farmers, Bipin Patel, said: “We do not use these seeds knowing them to be FC5. We had earlier refused an offer by PepsiCo to enter into an agreement mandating us to buy seeds and sell potatoes to it. That was not remunerative, and hence we rejected the offer.”

from Economic Times http://bit.ly/2ZCrqQC
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