Imagine buying cheap yellow pepper seeds at a hobby shop but end up with plants that produce orange peppers. This happened to a Dutch grower. He took the wholesaler to court because they could not sell the peppers. The judge has decided there should be compensation, but also found the grower himself at fault.
Yellow and orange
The grower bought the seeds from the wholesaler in 2015. He thought he had bought 3,000 Ajoema Yellow seeds (in 3 packages of 1,000 seeds each) for € 25.00 per package. To his surprise, however, the plants produced orange peppers instead of yellow ones.
The judge deemed that indeed damage was done. According to the grower, these damages amounted to more than 25,000 euros (8,500 kilos of peppers that should have sold for 3 euros per kilo) and he wants that amount back from the wholesaler where he bought the seeds. The wholesaler claims this is all exaggerated. The judge eventually put total damages at 18,000 euros.
Hobby or professional
Nevertheless, the grower was not fully reimbursed. The grower has taken a risk by cultivating professionally with seeds from a store that focuses on hobby cultivation. "It is certain that in the professional sector, so-called F1 hybrid seeds are sold which are of higher quality and cost about ten times that of the delivered seeds," was the opinion of the judge. The fact that the grower still decided to buy them makes this situation partly his own fault. Moreover, the grower was not able to prove that he has tried to sell the peppers at all.
The judge ordered compensation to be payed to an amount of 4.500 euros.