Headed by Deputy Secretary-General Peter Button from International Union for the Protection of New Varieties of Plants (UPOV) and advisor Aihara Fuminori, fifteen specialists from “International Symposium on the Testing Methodology for the Protection of New Varieties of Plants and the Application of Molecular Technique” visited CAF on September 24th 2013. The specialists are from the countries of the Netherlands, Brunei, Cambodia, Republic of Korea, Japan, Laos, Malaysia, Thailand and Viet Nam. Research fellow ZHENG Yongqi from Research Institute of Forestry gave a special talk to the visiting delegation. The delegation made a site visit to SFA’s Molecular Testing Laboratory dedicated to New Varieties of Plants, which is set up at RIF, and discussed in depth the application of molecular technique in the protection of new varieties of plants. The specialists all toured CAF’s State Key Laboratory of Forest Tree Genetic Improvement and Biotechnology as well as its research conservancy.

Co-sponsored by the State Forestry Administration and Ministry of Agriculture from China and the UPOV, the Symposium was convened in Beijing from September 23rd to 24th 2013.  The meeting presented the progresses in the protection of new varieties of plants by the member states of UPOV and exchanged the practice in the development of molecular testing of new varieties of plants and that of conventional testing methods.