The variety of juicy grape that Yuki Nakamura harvests as the sun rises over his farm took scientists 33 years to develop and can be sold for $100 a bunch in Tokyo department stores.
But in the view of Japanese farmers and officials, the chunky emerald Shine Muscat, one of the many fruit varieties created by Japan, has been “stolen” by China and South Korea.
“The great things about Shine Muscat is that each grape berry gets big, it’s easy to grow and it’s sweet but not too much,” Nakamura told AFP in the country’s central Nagano region.
Calling grapes his “companion”, the 35-year-old said he wants to export to places like Hong Kong and Thailand, where the Japanese fruit is popular.
But waiting on the shelves there — and online — are replicas grown in China and South Korea that are almost identical to Shine Muscat grapes, but much cheaper.
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According to the Japanese government, China and South Korea took Shine Muscat seedlings from Japan and grafted them onto local vines to produce fruit that looks and tastes — almost — just as good.
Customers are definitely “looking at the prices,” said Sau, a fruit seller at a busy market in Hong Kong where Japanese sparkling muscats often cost two or three times more than their Chinese counterparts, even with a weak yen that makes Japanese imports cheaper.
“But you can taste the difference,” the seller, who gave only her first name, told AFP.
“Japanese sparkling muscats are refreshing, sweet, and have a stronger grape flavor. Chinese ones are sweet, but they don’t have the grape flavor.”
“Fruits are special”
The Chinese Shine Muscat clones were discovered in 2016, a decade after the variety was registered in Japan, when the National Food and Agriculture Research Organization (NARO) investigated samples.
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But Japan can’t stop China or South Korea from growing the fruit because Tokyo — some say naively — failed to register the variety overseas within the six years required by international rules.
This was confirmed by South Korea’s agriculture ministry, which told AFP that “the current situation allows Shine Muscat grapes to be grown and distributed here without royalty requirements.”
Chinese authorities did not respond to requests for comment.
Japan can’t export grapes to China itself because of Beijing’s quarantine rules, so Chinese growers aren’t technically cannibalizing Japanese sales.
“But we would expect the licensing fees … would be over 10 billion yen ($69 million) a year, assuming we got rights in China,” Yasunori Ebihara, director of plant trademark protection at Japan’s agriculture ministry, told AFP.
The ministry admits that Japan has also failed to register new Japanese-origin strawberry, cherry and citrus varieties that have been found in China, South Korea and also Australia.
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Early auctions for seasonal fruit typically attract huge sums in Japan, with a single pair of premium melons fetching five million yen (then $45,500) in 2019.
“Fruit is special to the Japanese,” Ebihara said.
“Japanese consumers are looking for sweet, big, beautiful fruit in a fancy box,” he said.
“Therefore, Japanese farmers are making efforts to produce better quality, sweeter and tastier fruit.”
Testing times
Japan has been developing new fruit varieties since the 1920s.
Fuji apples — named after Japan’s famous volcano — appeared in the 1930s as a cross between two varieties and are now among the most popular in the world.
But the full-scale mission began after World War II and continues to this day at NARO research sites around the country.
On a recent sunny fall day, researchers were picking dozens of new pear varieties, measuring their sweetness and firmness with special equipment and the occasional bite.
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Takehiko Shimada, head of NARO’s fruit variety research unit, said it takes years of painstaking work to develop a new variety suitable for stores.
“It’s normal” that it took more than 30 years to produce Shine Muscat, he said.
The research organization has begun using DNA analysis to try to catch copies of new fruit varieties.
“There are genome sequences that only Shine Muscat has, so we can check if (a grape) has such a sequence and determine if it is Shine Muscat,” Shimada said.
Japan tightened its rules in 2020, banning the export of registered seeds and seedlings.
Violators can face up to 10 years in prison or a fine of up to 10 million yen ($69,000).
Japan is also making efforts to better protect domestic growers against foreign copycats.
Back at the farm, Nakamura is happy that Shine Muscats are known throughout Asia.
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“But I don’t like it when I see that something that Japan worked so hard to produce is easily taken overseas and sold there.”
Source: AFP