I've had numerous meetings with different organizations over the years as I worked on this committee when I was first elected and so on, and the message has always been very similar. There are only so many dollars invested around the world, Australia, Argentina, Brazil, the U.S., Europe, big growers of grain varieties. There are new varieties being developed for Africa so that they can start to get to some sort of food security and sustainability as well. There's growing demand for that.
I've had meetings in Germany during what they call International Green Week, in January. A number of ministers from Africa were simply demanding that the European Union stop withholding these new varieties of seed from them, because they know they need it. There's a growing demand across Europe, as well, in some of the lesser agricultural-based states, such as Portugal. They say they need access to the new varieties because they will grow on their lighter, rockier ground. There are those investments being made.
The Canadian representatives of all of those companies have always said we're out there competing against our own comrades, our own compatriots in the U.S., for investment, in Australia for investment, and so on. Still having the old jurisdiction under UPOV 78 was the first box they couldn't check, and that usually redirected those investments somewhere else immediately. This will change that. We are already seeing the benefits.