Global growth in plant variety applications continues
In 2023, approximately 29,070 plant variety applications were filed worldwide, marking a 6.6% increase compared to 2022 and extending the growth trend into an eighth consecutive year (figure 4.1). China was the largest contributor to this global expansion, followed by the Kingdom of the Netherlands.
China leads, receiving 55.7% of global plant variety applications filed in 2023
In 2023, China retained its position as the leading destination for plant variety applications, receiving 16,184 applications and accounting for over half of the global total. The Community Plant Variety Office (CPVO) of the European Union (EU) ranked second with 2,866 applications, representing 9.9% of global filings. Following the CPVO were the United States of America (US) (1,149), the Kingdom of the Netherlands (856) and the Russian Federation (852) (figure 4.2). China’s filings saw a significant increase for a ninth consecutive year, increasing by nearly a quarter (+24.2%) on 2022, driven almost entirely by resident filings (figure D6). Among top 10 offices, the Kingdom of the Netherlands experienced notable growth (+25.1%), as did the Republic of Korea (+12.2%), both of whom returned to a longer term application growth trend after a steep decline in 2022.
Seven of the top 10 offices underwent a decline in applications in 2023. The CPVO saw a 10.2% drop, primarily due to fewer submissions from France, Germany, and the Kingdom of the Netherlands. Similarly, the US recorded a 16.4% decline, largely driven by a decrease in domestic applications. The United Kingdom’s (UK) 819 applications were down 51.9% on 2022. That said, this decline is misleading, owing to the UK office having had an extremely large spike in applications in 2022 as a result of its transitioning out of the EU. Among other top 10 offices to record a reduction in applications were Argentina (–1.6%), Japan (–13.5%), the Russian Federation (–1.5%) and Ukraine (–2.7%).
The combined share of applications received at the top five jurisdictions worldwide grew by 1.4 percentage points in 2023, reaching 75.4%. This increase was mainly due to a continued rise in filings in China and growth in filings in the Kingdom of the Netherlands.
Eight of the top 10 jurisdictions received more applications from residents than from non-residents in 2023. China had the highest resident share among the top 10, with 95.9% of applications originating from domestic applicants. Conversely, Ukraine and the US were the only two jurisdictions among the top 10 where non-residents filed more applications than residents, with 58.2% and 52.8% of applications originating from abroad, respectively.
Asia was the region receiving the most plant variety filings in 2023, accounting for 62.1% of all applications. Since 2013, filings in Asia have almost quintupled significantly increasing the region's global share from 24.3% in 2013 (figure 4.3). Europe ranked as the second-largest region, representing about 23.7% of the global total in 2023. That said, the surge in filings within Asia witnessed during this period has caused Europe’s collective share to decline from the 46.0% of total filings it accounted for back in 2013. Over the past decade, Asia (+17.4%), Latin America and the Caribbean (+2.6%) and Africa (+1.6%) have all seen positive average annual growth. Meanwhile, Europe’s application numbers in 2023 remained nearly unchanged from its 2013 levels. In contrast, Northern America (–3.5%) and Oceania (–1.6%) have experienced declines, both recording negative average annual growth rates over the period.
China-based applicants lead global plant variety filings
Applications received by offices from resident and non-resident applicants are referred to as office data, whereas applications filed by applicants at a national or regional office (resident applications) or at a foreign office (applications abroad) are referred to as origin data. Here, plant variety statistics based on the origin of residence are reported in order to complement the global picture. Note that for applicants domiciled within EU member states, filing at the CPVO regional office is regarded as a resident filing, when discussing office data, and such filings are regarded as regional filings, when discussing origin data.
In 2023, China-based applicants were the most active globally, submitting 15,552 plant variety applications (figure 4.4). This marks a 25.9% increase on the previous year, driven primarily by resident filings. Following China, applicants from the Kingdom of the Netherlands filed 2,924 applications, reflecting growth of 1.7% over the prior year. The next largest origins were the US (1,763), France (993) and the UK (939). Together, these top five origins accounted for 76.3% of total plant variety filings worldwide in 2023, with China (53.5% of the total) and the Kingdom of the Netherlands (10.1%) contributing the largest shares.
Among the top 10 origins, only four experienced positive growth in plant variety applications compared to the previous year. In addition to the growth in applications from China, applicants from the Kingdom of the Netherlands (+1.7%), the Republic of Korea (+6.6%) and the Russian Federation (+11.3%) saw a notable increase in filings. The rise in applications from the Kingdom of the Netherlands was driven by a 3.3% growth in resident filings, although filings abroad and at regional offices decreased by 1.5%. The growth experienced by Russian applicants was entirely driven by applications within their home jurisdiction.
While applicants from five of the top 10 origins filed primarily applications abroad or at regional offices, those from China filed almost exclusively at their home office. Similarly, applicants from Japan, the Republic of Korea, the Russian Federation and the UK also predominantly filed within their respective home jurisdictions.
Plant variety titles issued increased significantly in 2023
In 2023, the total number of plant variety titles issued increased substantially by 41.8% (figure 4.5). The 21,150 plant variety titles issued in 2023 marked a significant rise compared to the previous year. China led the way, issuing 9,300 titles, representing a 131% increase on the year. This substantial growth in titles issued by China can be attributed to their efforts to address the large backlog of applications that had accumulated due to the rapid increase in applications since 2014.
Following China, the CPVO issued 2,718 titles, the US 1,149, Ukraine 1,045 and the UK 1,033. Similarly to China, the UK also experienced a very large increase in the number of titles issued, growing over 1,400% from 2022, when only 67 titles were issued. This sharp rise can be attributed to a significant influx of applications following the UK's withdrawal from the EU, as well as an exceptionally large number of applications received in 2022. It is important to note that the UK also issued 21,805 plant variety titles in 2023 related to plant variety rights transferred from the EU, as part of the withdrawal agreement. As these titles were not the result of direct applications they were excluded from the analysis in order to ensure a more accurate comparison between offices.
In addition to China and the UK, the Republic of Korea (+28.7%), the Russian Federation (+59%), South Africa (+7.6%) and Ukraine (+9.3%) also reported strong growth in the number of titles issued. In contrast, several offices experienced a decline in 2023 compared to 2022, including the CPVO (–8.3%) and the offices of Japan (–26%), the Kingdom of the Netherlands (–1.3%) and the US (–25.6%).
Note that the grant or registration process takes time, therefore fluctuations in the volume of plant variety titles granted may be a consequence of changes in processing capacity or procedural delay.
Rapid growth in plant varieties in force
Around 195,610 plant variety titles were in force at the end of 2023, up 21.3% on 2022. China (32,518), the CPVO (30,932), the US (28,384) and the UK (23,694) had the highest number of active titles. It should be noted that the UK number does include all the plant variety rights transferred from the EU, as this is an accurate reflection of the number of titles in force in the UK jurisdiction. Other offices maintaining at least 5,000 active titles included Ukraine (12,925), the Kingdom of the Netherlands (9,988), Japan (7,369) the Russian Federation (6,971) and the Republic of Korea (6,532).