Four protected varieties, not all Thai basil
CPRAM's protection for four holy basil varieties runs for 12 years, from 2024 until 2036, but Thailand's Agriculture Ministry says households can still grow even those protected varieties for their own consumption. The restriction identified by Agriculture Minister Suriya Juangroongruangkit concerns propagating the protected plants for sale without permission.
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The four varieties, Kaew Juree 01, 02, 03 and 04, were developed from a native basil line called CPR1. Kaew Juree 01 was registered on March 12, 2024, and the other three on May 24, 2024, under the Plant Variety Protection Act B.E. 2542, Thailand's 1999 law governing rights over plant varieties.
The Department of Agriculture says CPRAM does not sell seeds of these four varieties to the general public. Instead, the company produces them for contract growers who supply its food factories. That makes the immediate issue more specific than a nationwide change in how people buy or grow basil: the protected varieties sit within a particular commercial supply chain.
Farmers in Ban Mai, Nonthaburi province, nevertheless worry that protection could make them dependent on privately supplied seeds after years of growing plants and collecting seeds themselves. Their concern connects two issues: what the four registrations mean today, and whether future changes to Thai law could place tighter limits on saving and sharing seeds.
CPRAM says its rights cover the four registered varieties, not every kind of holy basil in Thailand. The company says the country has more than 200 varieties, while the department says farmers can continue using ordinary basil varieties, including collecting their seeds or buying seeds to plant.
What households and growers can do
Suriya, the agriculture and cooperatives minister, explained on October 22, 2026, that private companies may seek protection for new plant varieties developed through research. He said members of the public may grow protected basil for household consumption, while permission is required to propagate it for sale.
Propagation means making more plants, for example by sowing seeds or growing cuttings. A household growing basil to cook at home and a business multiplying protected plants to sell are therefore carrying out different activities under the minister's explanation.
The commercial restriction described by the minister concerns producing more of a protected variety for sale. For contract farmers supplying CPRAM's factories, the department identifies a separate, organised route through which the company provides planting material for production.
Farmers growing basil outside those four varieties can continue their usual cultivation practices, according to the department. CPRAM's registrations attach to named varieties, so the practical starting point for a grower is which variety they have, followed by what they plan to do with it.
How the varieties reached registration
CPRAM's breeding work began in April 2020, almost four years before the first registration. The development programme combined laboratory techniques with cultivation trials at Kasetsart University's Kamphaeng Saen campus in Nakhon Pathom and at CPRAM in Pathum Thani.
The sequence separates the research, the applications and the eventual grant of protection:
- April 2020: Development began using the native basil line CPR1.
- February 3, 2023: Applications were submitted to the Department of Agriculture for Kaew Juree 01, 02, 03 and 04.
- March 12, 2024: Kaew Juree 01 received registration.
- May 24, 2024: Kaew Juree 02, 03 and 04 received registration.
- October 22, 2026: Suriya explained the rules on household cultivation and commercial propagation.
- 2036: The stated protection period ends.
The registrations give CPRAM rights under the existing Thai law for a defined period. The wider debate about possible changes associated with the international UPOV 1991 convention concerns what a different legal framework could allow or restrict.
What changed in the laboratory
The Department of Agriculture's application documents describe the four varieties as originating from CPR1, a native holy basil line. Researchers used chemicals to induce an increase in the number of chromosome sets, alongside tissue culture, before selecting plants suitable for food production.
Chromosomes contain a plant's genetic instructions. Increasing the number of chromosome sets can change a plant's characteristics, giving breeders plants to assess and select. Tissue culture allows small pieces of plant material to grow under controlled conditions, helping researchers produce plants for further study and cultivation.
CPRAM says it researched, bred and selected basil for a strong aroma, an intense spicy flavour, fast growth and consistent yields. Those are the company's stated breeding goals for ingredients used in ready meals.
The cultivation trials linked the laboratory work to conditions at the university campus and the company. For a food manufacturer, consistent basil production matters because factories need a dependable supply of ingredients with the flavour and other characteristics required for their products.
Why farmers worry about seeds
Farmers in Ban Mai have raised a concern rooted in everyday farming: whether they will eventually have to buy seeds from a private company instead of keeping seeds from their own crops. Saving seeds gives a farmer planting material for the next season without making a fresh purchase each time.
The Department of Agriculture's explanation addresses the immediate position for ordinary basil. Farmers may continue collecting seeds from the varieties they commonly use or buying seeds to plant, while CPRAM's rights cover only its four registered varieties.
CPRAM's factory supply arrangement also helps explain why these varieties were developed. The company wants basil with particular characteristics for food manufacturing and distributes planting material through growers supplying that business. Farmers outside that arrangement still have other varieties to choose from.
The concern about dependence on seed suppliers therefore reaches beyond the current availability of CPRAM seeds. It concerns how much choice farmers retain, which varieties remain accessible, and what rules apply when they save, multiply or exchange planting material.
Public research and the ownership question
Kasetsart University appears in the story in two roles. Its Kamphaeng Saen campus hosted cultivation trials for CPRAM's breeding programme, and the university has also received protection for another basil variety.
The university's involvement has prompted a question about research supported by private money at a public institution: who should hold the resulting rights, and how should the public benefit? Companies may seek dependable ingredients and a return on research spending, while a public university also has responsibilities in research and knowledge sharing.
The ownership and funding terms governing this research have not been specified publicly in the information accompanying the dispute. No date has been given for a decision on changes connected to UPOV 1991.
Public plant research remains part of the government's response. Suriya said Department of Agriculture researchers continue developing plant varieties that farmers can use, placing access to publicly developed planting material alongside the legal protection available to private breeders.
Other basil choices remain available
The Department of Agriculture points to native basil and other varieties in the market as alternatives for growers. It also identifies research by the National Center for Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology, known as BIOTEC.
The BIOTEC varieties cited are Kiew BIOTEC 1, Kiew BIOTEC 2 and Daeng BIOTEC 3. Together with native varieties and other commercial planting material, they show that basil development takes place beyond CPRAM's programme.
CPRAM's figure of more than 200 Thai basil varieties puts its four registrations in context. The company has sought rights over a small group of selected varieties within a much wider range of basil. For farmers, continued access to that wider range is central to retaining a choice of planting material.
Choosing a variety still involves a practical decision about the crop a farmer wants to produce and the buyer it will serve. CPRAM's stated goals centre on factory ingredients, while the department's reassurance concerns farmers continuing to use the other basil varieties already available to them.
Why UPOV 1991 is part of the debate
BioThai, a biodiversity advocacy organisation, has warned that aligning Thai law with UPOV 1991 could strengthen plant breeders' rights and reduce farmers' freedom to save or share seeds from protected varieties. UPOV is an international framework for protecting new plant varieties.
The organisation's concerns extend beyond selling seeds. It says tighter rules could affect keeping protected seeds for another planting season, sharing them with other people even without payment, and using plant material for further selection or breeding.
Breeders' rights give a developer legal control over specified uses of a protected variety. The policy debate is about the reach of that control and the room left for farmers and researchers to continue working with the plants. BioThai has called for a review of proposed legal changes that considers public benefit and guards against concentrated control of plant varieties.
Suriya's explanation concerns the law currently governing CPRAM's four registrations: households may grow the protected basil for consumption, while commercial propagation requires permission. BioThai's warning focuses on how farmers' options could change under a future legal framework. Keeping those two decisions separate makes the immediate rules and the proposed changes easier to understand.
Key Points
- CPRAM holds protection for Kaew Juree 01, 02, 03 and 04, registered in 2024 for 12 years until 2036.
- Agriculture Minister Suriya says households may grow protected basil for consumption, but propagating it for sale requires permission.
- The Department of Agriculture says the four varieties are produced for contract growers supplying CPRAM factories, rather than sold as seeds to the general public.
- Farmers can continue growing other basil varieties and collecting their seeds under the department's explanation.
- The breeding programme began in April 2020 using native line CPR1, chromosome doubling and tissue culture.
- BioThai warns that changes connected to UPOV 1991 could place further limits on saving, sharing and breeding from protected seeds.
