A prominent Cape Winelands farmer has one week left to destroy two ‘illegal’ vineyards, or risk the ignominy of watching the sheriff of the court doing it for him, says a Times Select report.

It is not the first time table grape farmer Eddie Redelinghuys has fallen foul of the law; three years ago an American court ruled he was in breach of a plant breeders rights agreement with a Californian plant genetics company which allowed Redelinghuys to grow its table grape varieties under licence in specific Winelands locations.

The company, International Fruit Genetics (IFG), had cancelled the licence agreements in 2017, only to discover that Redelinghuys was still growing its plants in SA. Redelinghuys said he was not obligated to destroy his vines in terms of SA law.

However, the Western Cape High Court ordered Redelinghuys – in the form of two shelf company ‘respondents’ under his control – to comply with the US court ruling and destroy all IFG vines in his possession, ‘including cutting off all vines below the graft of any IFG Proprietary Cultivar’ in his possession.

Redelinghuys, meanwhile, has lodged a separate damages claim against IFG for commercial losses as a result of the termination of their licence agreement.

Full Times Select report