January 26, 2007

Syngenta gets US EPA approval for stacked-trait corn

The US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has approved a combination of insect resistance traits in corn hybrids from Syngenta, the company said in a press release Thursday (Jan 25).

The EPA approval of the combination of corn rootworm and European corn borer resistances also enables the company to launch a new triple-stacked corn variety that combines both insect resistances with glyphosate tolerance.

Syngenta said Agrisure CB/RW, which contains both the insect resistance traits, will be available in limited quantities for the spring 2007 growing season, and the triple-stack seed, called Agrisure GT/CB/RW, will be available for 2008.

"The approval of the stacked insect traits marks another milestone in our strategy to offer a highly competitive portfolio of proprietary biotech products to growers in the world's largest corn market," Mike Mack, chief operating officer of Syngenta Seeds, said in the release.

"As we scale up hybrid production over the next two seasons, this will enable Syngenta to drive growth and market share into the next decade," he said.