WITH Australia’s grain supply chain growing increasingly competitive and complex, End Point Royalty administrator Australian Crop Breeders (ACB) is seeking to streamline processes for growers and improve compliance.

Under the first stage of improvements, growers will no longer need to report sales data for this season’s crop in their Harvest Declaration with the National Grower Register.

The simplified process will commence in February, and is being instituted in response to grower and industry feedback that parts of the current system are overly onerous.

The changes come amid slipping compliance rates, estimated at around 70-75 percent for wheat and barley, but falling to 45-50pc for pulses.

EPRs cover most open-pollinated grain crops under the Plant Breeders Rights Act 1994 and are payable to breeders on point of sale on a per-tonne basis for up to 20 years per variety.

ACB chief executive officer Narelle Moore said an improved experience on the NGR website can also be expected.

“We know from grower feedback that the level of information needed to accurately complete their Harvest Declaration has been onerous in some areas,” Dr Moore said.

Dr Narelle Moore

She said under the new system, growers will only need to provide the following data for their NGR Harvest Declaration:

• tonnes unsold from last season by variety (2024);
• tonnes harvested this season by variety (2025);
• if required, tonnes cut for hay or silage by variety; and,
• tonnes retained for seed this season by variety (planting from 2026).

“It means less paperwork in terms of sales data, but it continues to be crucial that growers accurately record harvest tonnage by variety to help this simplified process work effectively.

“Production data needs to be as accurate as possible, as it underpins the royalty manager’s ability to reconcile a grower’s account and determine the correct EPR invoicing amount.”

Compliance rates

Beyond improving the grower experience, the forthcoming changes and those still to come are intended to strengthen compliance under the EPR scheme.

Dr Moore said it was recognised that maintaining EPR compliance “can be difficult”.

She said grain traders and feedgrain buyers that auto-deducted EPRs or provided variety data information to ACB were playing a key role in boosting compliance, with 83pc of collections now handled this way.

However, Dr Moore said problems often arose when growers sold directly, mostly to domestic consumers and, less frequently, to ports.

“They may not collect that variety information and if that variety information is not collected, then EPR can’t be collected.”

She said the lack of data collection was more frequently seen in the domestic supply chain.

“The domestic market makes it hard for EPR compliance because there isn’t that strong collection of variety data, and that’s what we need to be able to do EPR compliance.”

Alongside working with grower groups, ACB since November 2023 has been auditing growers to promote compliance and gather feedback on how the process could be improved for growers.

“We’re trying a lot of things to help compliance, and the audits are about going out…and getting an idea of what’s happening out there, what the issues are, and why misdeclaration may be occurring.”

Proposal for buyer onus

EPR collection is governed by the Plant Breeder’s Rights Act 1994, which is administered by the federal agency IP Australia.

Since late 2022, IP Australia has been reviewing the system and consulting stakeholders with a view to updating the legislation.

Among other recommendations, ACB has called for a “purchase right” to be added to the legislation to ensure the first purchasers of the variety deduct and remit EPRs.

This change would move the responsibility from growers to grain and feed buyers – the first point of sale.

Dr Moore said changes were expected to significantly boost compliance in the domestic supply chain, where problems are most common.

“It is a legislative right that all grain buyers, feed buyers, domestic users collect that EPR, that first point of sale, so moving it away from growers into those that are actually purchasing the grain.

“There are 22,000 growers and there’s definitely not that many grain buyers.

“We recognise that for some of them…there’s extra work associated with that and we’re happy to help them.”

Plant breeder innovations

Beyond its core functions, ACB members are individually investigating reforms to the EPR system that would broaden obligations past growers.

Tress Walmsley addressed the EPR system at Speaking at the UWA Institute of Agriculture’s 19th Industry Forum. Photo: UWA

ACB member and crop breeder InterGrain was seeking to market certain varieties with EPR paid by supply chain participants other than grain growers.

Speaking at a recent conference, InterGrain chief executive officer and ACB board member Tress Walmsley said the company was progressing a “test case” barley variety where the malt trader who was selling to the whisky distiller pays the EPR.

“We have jumped it over the growers, over the malthouse and actually having it paid two steps down the supply chain,” Ms Walmsley said.

“Given that the majority of Australian beer is actually producers from an InterGrain-bred barley variety, I’m looking forward to the day where all my beer-loving friends are also paying for some of the cost of plant breeding.”

She said this innovation was about having plant breeding “funded by those who receive a benefit”.

“The cost of plant breeding is currently paid for by growers, and they are definitely primary beneficiary of the plant breeding outputs, but I would argue that there are beneficiaries along the supply chain that are kind of getting it for free at this point in time.”

Strong EPR system crucial

Dr Moore said the ongoing initiatives of ACB and its members aim to secure assured and sustainable revenue for crop breeders, supporting the development of new varieties.

“EPRs aren’t a reward to the breeding program; they’re the revenue model.

“It’s about getting that return on the investment.

“In general, it’s 10-12 years to get a variety out there and then to bring in these new breeding technologies and innovations that help reduce that time, they all come at a cost.

“If a breeder can’t predict its budget going forward because EPR compliance is dropping and dropping…it makes it very hard to look forward to those long-term investments in these new technologies.”

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