Monsanto Brazil to Invest $20 Mln in New GMO Soy
Date: 04-Mar-05
Country: BRAZIL
Author: Natuza Nery
The announcement came a day after Brazil's Congress passed a landmark Biosafety law intended to clear the commercial use of genetically modified crops in the country, one of the world's largest agricultural producers and exporters.
The new soybean variety would employ techniques already used in new varieties of corn and cotton that have genes from the Bacillus thuringiensis, or Bt, bacteria, which produces a natural toxin to kill bugs that feed on crops.
"We have approved investment is Brazil of $20 million for research in Bt soybeans resistant to the nematode pest that has been creating problems for production in the country," Rodrigo Almeida, the director of corporate affairs at Monsanto in Brazil, told Reuters in an interview.
He said the investment should be made over the next two to three years.
Monsanto, the world leader in biotech seeds sales, also said it would resume research on the first Bt varieties of corn and cotton in Brazil, where Monsanto's Roundup Ready soy holds 100 percent share of a thriving black market in genetically modified soy.
So-called RR soy has been genetically altered to withstand glyphosate herbicide, including Monsanto's Roundup brand, which is quite effective at controlling weeds but also kills conventional forms of soybeans.
Brazil's lower house passed in a final vote on Wednesday a Biosafety Law that will define the regulatory framework for the use of genetically modified crops. The legislation now goes to President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva to be signed into law.
Over the past decade, environment and consumer groups opposed to bioengineered crops have successfully won legal cases against seed companies, the scientific community, farming interests and even the government, keeping Brazil the world's largest food exporter still to ban such crops.
The new law should mark an end to this distinction, but legal challenges to the law from groups such as Greenpeace are not out of the question.
Leaders in the agricultural sector, however, are confident the law will lead rapidly to the end of the ban on genetically modified soy at least. And Monsanto's RR soy is closest to legal sales in Brazil of all such crops applying for approval.
RR already accounts for about a third of Brazil's soy crop, which is the world's second largest after the United States, even though Monsanto has not been able to sell its genetically modified soy seed legally in the country to date.
Monsanto's competitors such, as Bayer's Bayer CropScience and Syngenta are no doubt also very interested in the potential revenues from Brazil's farm sector.
But Monsanto's market share in the field suggests it will be a major beneficiary from Brazil's clearance of genetically modified seed sales.
Monsanto shares were trading at $58.36, down 0.21 percent, on the New York Stock Exchange Thursday, after having risen firmly in recent months as it became clear that Brazil's Congress was likely to approve the new law.