World’s most expensive grapes that are only grown in Ishikawa, Japan matches with the DNA of the luxury grapes from South Korea.

I’m here to tell to you what’s been happening in the Ruby Roman grapes industry over the past few weeks.
On July 7th, the Ishikawa Prefecture’s government announced that the DNA of the Ruby Roman grapes that are ONLY grown locally matched the DNA of the luxury grapes in Korea that they also call “Ruby Roman”🍇

The local farmers and producers of these grapes suspect that the seeds may have found their way to Korea but they weren’t sure how. They expressed disbelief and regret over this as they have worked years and years to cultivate these world-class grapes. Unfortunately, no further legal actions can be done and productions can’t be stopped at the moment because the producers of these Korean “Ruby Roman” grapes have trademarked their name and brand in the country both in English and Hangul in 2019 and 2020.

Why is this exactly a problem? 🤔

It is considered a leak of intellectual property. Regular grapes don’t just grow like Ruby Roman grapes do. These grapes from Ishikawa have to go through a very strict and rigorous procedure just to carry the name and brand hence the hefty price tag. The Korean “Ruby Roman” grapes are sold at a cheaper price and this can affect the industry and brand as a whole.

Moving forward…🏃

The prefecture is now preparing to trademark Ishikawa’s Ruby Roman grapes in 47 countries to prevent further brand damage and stop Korean “Ruby Roman” grapes from being exported to those countries. Although the original Ruby Roman grapes from Ishikawa and the Korean ones share the same DNA, they are inferior to the real ones in terms of sugar content and size.