The Plumpy’nut Controversy

INTRODUCTION:

It is a known fact that Nutriset, the French-based manufacturer of Plumpy’Nut, plays an integral role in ensuring that the world's malnourished children have hope for a healthy and productive future. Nutriset developed and expanded its supply chain capabilities into several countries around the world; for instance, the local production partnerships in Kenya, Malawi and Niger, to mention a few (Levaillant). The United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) also known to be Nutriset's principal customer that purchases roughly 90% of its stockpile, as reported by the organization in 2009 (RICE, 2010). The fact that Nutriset’s production capacity is nowhere near the capacity needed in order to provide adequate support in the combating of the ever growing global epidemic of children malnutrition. Nutriset is an integral partner in the project's Ready-to-Use Therapeutic Foods (RUTF) facilitation in Africa and other parts of the world. If the US companies were able to beat the patent, with certainty, the global availability of RUTFs would of course increase. Conversely, it would mean the end for their local partners in Africa, among other due to their inability to compete (Schofield, 2010).

FACTS SUMMARY:

Nutriset founded in 1986 by Michael Lescanne, a French agricultural engineer, after ten years studying the field of the humanitarian nutrition. The company started researching and making therapeutic milks as a treatment for severe malnutrition. In 1997, Nutriset invented Plumpy’Nut, the first ready-to-eat nutritional paste for nutritional rehabilitation in severe acute malnutrition (originally developed as at-home-treatment). Plumpy’Nut is a peanut based food product designed to feed starving children in emergency situations. The product has turned out to be revolutionary and has changed the face of feeding the hungry (Enserink, 2008).

As the demand for Plumpy’Nut increased, so did the number of children and families it supports. A few regard Plumpy’Nut as a dream come through, and attributed for saving the lives of thousands at a significantly lower of the cost of any similar product preceding it. Their impressive success translated into high profits for Nutriset, and the reinvestment of the profits into their business enabled the company to expand operations an increase their output. Unsurprisingly, their success did not go unnoticed before long other would be competitors wanted to manufacture an equivalent and/or Plumpy’Nut itself. Nutriset is the patents holder and strictly enforces them worldwide; only a few manufacturers succeeded in their attempts to do so. Irrespective, some would be competitors refused to give up; the global market for Plumpy’Nut is enormous for them to stay away.

• A number of interest groups suggest that Nutriset’s patent protection of Plumpy’Nut hinders the global RUTF inventories