A PERPETUAL interdict has been granted in the Court of Session in
Edinburgh against John M. Steven and Son, Wester Meathie, Forfar, and
John Steven and Mrs Annie Steven, stopping them from producing for sale
seed potatoes of the Dutch-bred variety, Romano.
It also prevents John M. Steven and Son, and the partners in the
business, from producing or selling reproductive material of the variety
Romano within the meaning of the Plant Variety and Seeds Act 1964.
The reason for the action, taken against the firm by the breeder with
the assistance of the British Society of Plant Breeders Ltd, was the
sale of Romano ''small ware'' for planting as seed.
John M. Steven and Son had no authorisation from the variety's Dutch
breeder or his agent, Nickersons, to produce or sell Romano and was,
therefore, in contravention of the 1964 Act. The sale of unclassified or
uncertified seed is also prohibited under seeds regulations.
Mr John Steven is the representative of the Scottish National Farmers'
Union on the Scottish Seed Potato Development Council. Further court
proceedings are pending against other growers in Scotland and England.
These steps are being taken as part of the British Society of Plant
Breeders' policy of stamping out the practice of selling small ware for
planting, which they claim is detrimental to the future of the Scottish
seed potato industry as a whole.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article