AUSTRALIAN citrus growers who try to export nadorcott mandarins to Europe without paying royalties risk having their fruit shipments seized.
AgriExchange business development manager Steve Burdette said about 700ha of the seedless variety had been planted in Australia since it was released in 2000.
Mr Burdette said 90 per cent of the trees were not registered.
The variety was developed in Morocco as afourer, but also is known as nadorcott or w. murcott in other countries.
It is subject to plant breeders' rights in Europe, where it is very popular, and covered by a patent in the US.
Mr Burdette said it was not illegal to have unregistered trees in Australia, because the South African cultivar management company Citrogold, which acquired the rights to manage the variety in the southern hemisphere, had registered it in South Africa but not Australia, Argentina, Chile or Uruguay.
This had caused widespread confusion among Australian citrus growers about the legal status of the variety, what names it could be sold under and which export markets it could be sold to.
Mr Burdette said the afourer trademark was owned by Moroccans and the name could not legally be used for unlicensed fruit grown elsewhere.
Illegal shipments from South American countries have been seized on arrival in European Union countries, he said.
To bring Australian growers under the Citrogold banner and enable access to the EU and US, Queensland company Variety Access, which represents Citrogold in Australia, formed an Australian Nadorcott Growers Club in April.
Members voluntarily registered 44ha of trees before legally exporting 1400 tonnes of fruit to the EU this year under the Clemengold brand.
Another 32ha of trees is to be registered next year.
Mr Burdette said the registration of more trees would depend on whether growers wanted to legally export fruit to the EU and US, or try to send illicit exports and avoid paying royalties, but risk legal action and fruit being confiscated. Or they could sell domestically or export to countries other than the EU and US, without paying royalties.
"Really, it's up to growers to make a choice as to whether they register their trees or not," he said.
Seven Fields has some of Australia's biggest plantings of nadorcotts, with 110ha at its Sunwest orchard at Red Cliffs, south of Mildura.
Marketing manager Clare McMahon said some of the trees had been registered, to allow the company to sell unlabelled fruit into approved export programs.
More than half of this year's first commercial crop of about 1000 tonnes was exported to Europe, Asia and the US and the remainder sold on the domestic market under the company's Sunwest brand, she said.
