Recently, the International Union for the Protection of New Varieties of Plants (UPOV) 2025 series of meetings was held at the UPOV headquarters in Geneva, Switzerland. Yang Kun, a senior agronomist from the Institute of Vegetables and Flowers of the Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, participated as member of a joint delegation comprising representatives from the National Intellectual Property Administration, the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs, and the National Forestry and Grassland Administration.

The UPOV series of meetings included seven sessions: the 59th Session of the Council, the 103rd Session of the Consultative Committee, the 82nd Session of the Administrative and Legal Committee, the 61st Session of the Technical Committee, the 6th Session on Electronic Applications, the 8th Session of the Working Group on Harvested Material and Unauthorized Use of Propagating Material, and a seminar on cooperation with breeders in Distinctness, Uniformity, and Stability (DUS) testing. The meetings attracted representatives from 80 UPOV members and multiple international organizations. During the event, UPOV released the latest data, revealing that China has ranked first globally for several consecutive years in the number of applications for plant variety rights, highlighting the country’s strong capabilities in the protection of new plant varieties.

Yang Kun participated in discussions on all topics, engaging in in-depth exchanges with representatives from various countries, particularly on DUS testing technologies, and shared his team’s achievements in the research, development, and application of new technologies. He also took part in consultations on future cooperation between China and the UPOV office and was nominated by the Chinese delegation as a proposed candidate for the chair of the next UPOV Technical Working Group on Methods (TWM). These meetings not only provided an important platform for global exchanges on the protection of new plant varieties but also laid the foundation for China to play a greater role on the international stage.