A key activity of Soy Australia is to work in partnership with the members of the Australian National Soybean Breeding Program (ANSB) and its commercial partners to develop new varieties that will benefit all sectors of the soybean supply chain. The ANSB is a joint venture between CSIRO, NSW DPI and funded by the GRDC. The key objectives of the ANSB are to:

• Assist the industry to reach its full potential by developing soybean varieties with wider adaption, regionally targeted fitness, yield and agronomic traits.

• Combine these traits with end-user requirements, including the higher value culinary markets.

• Develop improved linkages with commercial partners and the wider soybean industry.

Soy Australia’s commercialisation strategy is based on incorporating the significant business opportunities currently, and into the future, facing the Australian soybean industry. Soy Australia will work closely with all segments of the soybean supply chain establishing the requirements and benefits of the numerous end uses of Australian soybeans, communicating these and facilitating strategic linking along the whole supply chain to build a solid and dynamic industry. Soy Australia’s plan for a route to market includes all of the many end uses of soybeans including the edible, animal, industrial and aquaculture feeds, the crushers and a variety of other valuable end use markets.

The growth and development of the Australian soybean industry will be underpinned by the development of new varieties through the Australian National Soybean Breeding Program (ANSB). The program represents a partnership between the Grains Research and Development Corporation (GRDC), CSIRO and NSW DPI. The activities of the collaborating partners are:

CSIRO: will lead the soybean improvement program and implement the breeding strategy including undertaking pre breeding to identify and introgress new traits, crossing, breeding and generational advance of the new germplasm, laboratory testing for quality, some varietal evaluation of the new lines and provide the strategic research direction of the program.

NSW DPI: will undertake some generational advance, strain and variety trials for phenology, yield and agronomic traits, resistance to shattering, downy mildew and Sclerotinia. They will also evaluate the lines for acceptability to human consumption markets and test for protein and oil content.

GRDC: is a key investor and supporter of the program.

Key objectives of the breeding program are to:

• Assist the soybean industry to achieve its full potential by developing cultivars with wider adaptation, maturities that fit each target soybean region, improved yield, higher protein content, weathering tolerance, drought tolerance, phytophthora and other disease resistances.

• Combine these traits with processing characteristics necessary for all sectors of the soybean market including the higher value culinary markets.

• Develop improved linkages between elements of the ANSB and Soy Australia to support a more rapid advancement of the industry and to promote efficiencies in delivering improved soybean varieties to farmers and processors.

The ANSB has a number of key target regions. The regions include the Riverina (NSW), the north coast (NSW), inland irrigation areas (NSW), sub-tropical coastal region (Qld) and the Darling Downs (Qld).

The Australian Soybean Breeding Program is funded by a joint partnership comprising the GRDC, CSIRO and NSW DPI. Implicit in the breeding program is the undertaking that all new varieties will be protected under the Plant Breeder’s Right (PBR) Act 1994 and that these varieties will have an end-point royalty applied in order to develop a revenue stream for the continuation of the breeding program. The aim of the partners is to move the breeding program to a self funding basis. The soybean industry agreed in 2007 that the breeding program needed to develop a revenue stream if it was to be sustainable in the future.

As a commercial partner in the Australian Soybean Breeding Program, Soy Australia, has agreed to manage and collect end-point royalties on existing and new soybean varieties for which it is a licensee.

PBR was introduced to encourage the development of new varieties by providing for those breeders and other parties investing in the breeding program the opportunity to recoup some of their investment.  In simple terms, PBR can be seen as the seed version of patents or copyright.

Breeding new varieties can take up to 14 years from the initial recognition of potential new germplasm to the commercial release of a new variety. Soybean breeding could be considered as a funnel or a distillation vessel, a large number of potential candidates enter the program but most are selected out as they progress through the stages and only a very few actually exit the program as new commercial varieties. In all, soybean breeding requires a high level of investment and a high level of risk for commercial companies.

End-point royalties are the method in which the breeders and commercial partners can recoup this investment and are a way for growers to continue to contribute to the development of new varieties and the sustainability of the breeding program.

End-point royalties is a payment made by the grower to use the licensed variety, and as the name suggests it is based on production of harvested grain and is paid when the harvested seed is sold by the grower. One of the main benefits of EPR is that it shares the risk of crop production between the breeder, the commercial partner and the grower.

Since January, 2013 all Soy Australia varieties sold have an end-point royalty.

More details about end-point royalties can be found on the Variety Central website.