But so far, producers, cooperatives and traders are buying and selling without any GM labels or any increase in GM-free certificates.

Brazil has banned the commercial use of GM crops and foods since 1998, but a black market in GM soy has thrived in the south as producers smuggle Monsanto Roundup Ready GM soy from Argentina and Paraguay. Measure 113 provides amnesty for GM producers to sell their soy until Jan. 2004.

"For now, the measure has not altered anything in the commercial process of the cooperatives," said Rui Polidoro, president of the Rio Grande do Sul Federation of Agricultural Cooperatives (Fecoagro), which has seen no labeling or increase in segregation of soybeans in the No. 3 soy producer state.

"The volume of (conventional soy) certified is minimum," said Polidoro. "It makes the volume of transgenic soy in the state look much larger than it really is."

Soy traders say 85 percent of the state's 8 million tonnes crop has been harvested and Fecoagro believes 50 to 60 percent of it is genetically altered.

The soy sector in No. 2 producer Parana, which has nearly completed its harvest, has also ignored the measure.

"We're observing still no concern about the labeling," said Nelson Costa at the state Cooperatives Organization (Ocepar).

Costa said the absence of labeling was due to very little planting of GM by state producers respecting the ban.

NO INTEREST IN GM-FREE

Cooperatives said there was no apparent increase in interest in certifying soy as GM-free, either, despite 113.

Antonio Sartori, owner of the Rio Grande do Sul brokerage Brasoja, said nobody was certifying crops as non-transgenic because there was no financial compensation.

"The buyer doesn't want to know, so the producer prefers to deliver the soy as transgenic and ready," said Sartori.

Most of the main cooperatives in Rio Grande do Sul and Parana reported that they were receiving soy without any indication as to whether it is transgenic or not.