Posting an addirtional letter from the Moores about the situation in Peru Richard Orr ****************************************************************************** ********************** We are Lee and Zadith (Chady) Moore, owners of Vivero Nuevo Destino in Moyobamba, Peru and authors of the letters to INRENA about this absurd Supreme Decree that has been imposed on us all of a sudden overnight without warning.
This Decree was not made by INRENA (The CITES Authority in Peru) but a is Congressional Bill that was passed into law and signed by the President Toledo before he left office last July. INRENA only enforces and implements this Supreme Decree passed by Congress. This bill was sneaked through without the knowledge of any of the orchid exporters except Manuel Arias and Son, Manolo of Peruflora and his political friends who are the authors of this Decree in order to gain the monopoly on orchid exports from Peru because somehow, they have convinced INRENA that all of the 352 species being offered on their website are reproduced in vitro which is an absurd claim as anyone should know. All of the rest of us are expected to make this overnight transition of exporting mature plants that have only been reproduced in vitro. Peruflora has been able to accomplish this miraculous feat in less than a year like when Jesus fed the multitude with a basket of fish, a loaf of bread and a jug of water that he turned into wine. I am sure that professional orchid growers around the world would like to know his secret for this miraculous accomplishment. This Decree includes such other things as Cacti, Bromeliads and even Mohogony trees etc. to be reproduced in vitro. Whoever heard of such thing? Also in the prohibited orchid list, we found species listed that do no even occur in Peru but from other parts of the world. This shows that the authors of this absurd Decree do not have any concept of what they are talking about. It is obvious that this Supreme Decree was designed only to benefit the Peruflora monopoly and not protect the orchids in the wild. Everyone knows that the orchids Peruflora exports are 'wild collected' because we live there and we know all of the local collectors of wild orchids and they tell us about the plants that they ship to Peruflora. Besides, it is obvious that their plants have been blooming for over 5-6 years from first flowering indicated by the flowered out back bulbs. Peruflora has been operating a laboratory for only a few years which makes their claim of being reproduced in vitro an impossibility. Unfortunately, we cannot convince INRENA of this fact. We are one of the legal registered growers of Phragmipedium kovachii authorized by INRENA. Each of the growers were allowed to possess 5 (five) collected plants to begin propagation and reproduction. In 2005 Peruflora published in their website a list of customers that have legally purchased and received their flasks of Pk and hybrids thereof. In less than a year and a half, They registered over 150 buyers of Pk flasks and numerous other hybrids of Pk. Many of the customers purchased up to 4 flasks of these. That is a lot of flasks to be produced from only 5 plants right out of the jungle not to mention the hybrids supposedly from a species that produces very little seed in each pod and a high percentage of these are not even viable. We would all like to know how this miraculous feat was accomplished. Not to mention a couple of hundred flasks that were offered for sale in the recent International Orchid Show in Australia. I have a feeling that a lot of people who bought these Pk flasks are going to be unpleasantly surprised when they start blooming and see what species or hybrid they really are. I would like to see Peruflora try to explain this phenomena to a knowledgeable grower, not INRENA, who accepts their phenomenal claims. Unfortunately there are no knowledgeable orchid experts in INRENA that have any concept of this reality. In 2002, we had purchased a number of these Pk that were being brought in from the wild and being offered to the nurseries. These plants were declared and registered with INRENA at the time. This was before all of the scandal started with this species. By 2005, we had reproduced over 220 seedlings of the Pk without the means of vitro. These grew naturally in our soil in our nursery before receiving authorization to possess the 5 legal plants to use in reproduction. Needless to say, since we had not received official authorization to grow this species, these 220 seedlings were confiscated by INRENA and sent to a university in Lima where they promptly died or disappeared. Now, we are starting over again and I can tell you that it is a very slow process with only 5 plants to work with. This is the reality. If anyone is interested in seeing a copy of this Supreme Decree No 043-2006-AG It was published in El Peruano (Gov't newspaper that nobody reads-only lawyers) 13 July 2006 Look at _www.inrena.gov.pe_ (http://www.inrena.gov.pe) Zadith Moore Vivero Nuevo Destino Moyobamba-Peru _______________________________________________ the OrchidGuide Digest (OGD) [email protected] http://orchidguide.com/mailman/listinfo/orchids_orchidguide.com
