About us
Rex Graham and John Morton have always believed in the value of new varieties to improve the economic opportunities for growers and marketers and ultimately enhance the eating experience of the consumer. Shennong Variety Management began in 2006 after a related company was exporting fruit to and from China. The team realised the limited range of internationally available commercial plant varieties were holding back China’s horticulture development. They knew their experience in plant intellectual property in New Zealand would be an advantage and set about importing apple and pear selections in 2006. Shennong Variety Management was born.
Intellectual Property Protection
SVM’s secure facilities ensure plant material is under our tight control from importation through to commercialisation. Our focus is on securing plant breeders rights and trademark protection. We back this up with contracts and use of our database to manage the movement of plant material and the tracking of payments.
Experience
The SVM team has many years of experience working with plant breeders in both New Zealand and China. Our Managing Director, John Morton, is a world renowned expert on new fruit varieties and plant intellectual property rights. Backed by a strong governance team and the support of our amazing bilingual staff in China, SVM has the systems to protect and successfully commercialise new material.
Relationships
AIGN
SVM is proud to be the AIGN (Associated International Group of Nurseries) member for China since 2008. AIGN is a proactive global network of nurseries committed to sharing technical information and systems to secure plant variety rights. It operates the IP Management database, Hertha. AIGN is a member of CIOPORA.
JOY WING MAU
JOY WING MAU is the leading wholesaler and grower of fresh fruit in China. JWM distributes kiwifruit, blueberries, oranges, cherries, grapes, apples, and other fruit. They are a 24% shareholder in SVM. The Harvard Business Review announced JWM is the “Best Managed Chinese Company of 2020” in July 2020.
SALVER
SVM has a strategic relationship with SALVER. Salver is a professional fruit tree nursery and undertake innovative research development in China.
Their core business involves fruit tree production of apple, cherry, pear, blueberry, etc. Salver Nursery operates in three locations in China. They have a tissue culture operation and undertake virus testing in their labs.
Membership Partners
Guanlv
Shandong Guanlv Agricultural Technology Co., Ltd. is a company engaged in the cultivation and sales of fruit tree seedlings, especially cherry seedlings, with its own nurseries and variety demonstration orchard.
They signed a membership agreement and propagation license with SVM for cherry, so they can do the trial planting of new cherry varieties and get the propagation right of Rocket, Pacific Red, Frisco, Nimba and Tamara in China. And they have begun the commercial production for these varieties.
58 Agriculture
58 Agriculture is a comprehensive agricultural company. It has modern agricultural bases and professional nurseries in major production areas of China. Through advanced agricultural management technologies such as mechanization, digitization, and integrated water and fertilizer, 58 Agriculture has a good performance in apples, blueberries, soft seed pomegranates, cherries, and citrus.
SVM has signed a membership agreement with 58 Agricultural for apples. SVM provides new apple varieties every year. 58 Agriculture conducts trial planting, once selected a variety, they will quickly build a large-scale demonstration orchard to commercialize the variety.