Saturday Mornings with Glenn van ZutphenSaturday Mornings with Glenn van Zutphen

Saturday Mornings: Blueberries, IP Theft, and the New Food Geopolitics. Jon Emont on China’s Great Agricultural Copy‑and‑Paste

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🌍MoneyFM 89.3’s Saturday Mornings Show host Glenn van Zutphen talks with Wall Street Journal senior reporter Jon Emon about one of the most astonishing business‑and‑geopolitics stories of the year: how Driscoll’s brought blueberries to China and China copied the entire playbook.

Fifteen years ago, Driscoll’s entered Yunnan with elite genetics, high‑tech growing systems, and a vision to turn blueberries into China’s next big consumer trend. It worked. By 2020, the company was producing thousands of tons for Chinese supermarkets. But success came with a cost: widespread IP theft, copycat nurseries, and undercover investigators discovering that China’s agricultural sector had reverse‑engineered Driscoll’s proprietary varieties.

Jon breaks down how this happened, why agricultural IP is becoming a frontline in global trade tensions, and what this means for food security, supply chains, and Western companies operating in China. His reporting shows how geopolitics now extends into orchards, genetics labs, and supermarket shelves.

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Saturday Mornings with Glenn van Zutphen

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