July 2, 2010

Australia's grain marketers announce price discounts for GM rapeseed

In Western Australia, Emerald, AWB and CBH currently have GM rapeseed at a AUD5 (US$4.3) a tonne discount to conventionally-bred rapeseed, while Elders Toepfer Grain at this stage is not buying GM rapeseed at all.

But those companies are monitoring how the market tracks and have not ruled out removing the discount if rapeseed supplies are short.

CBH said this week it would offer a AUD5 premium for non-GM rapeseed to capitalise on potential increased rapeseed demand from Europe. CBH rapeseed trading manager Bryan Keay said currently the market in Europe was depressed but it could increase later in the year.

"In the future, we think Europe may pay a premium for non-GM so we've decided to put a price differential between the two," he said. "It's hard to predict what will happen but I think Europe had a smaller production than last year. We could be looking to export more rapeseed this year so we would like to encourage growers to deliver to non-GM segregations. Prices could become more supportive (for non-GM)."

Receival points are likely to be designated "generic", meaning GM and non-GM rapeseed will be co-mingled and all growers delivering to a commingled stack, even if they are not growing GM rapeseed, may find their prices discounted.

Other sites are expected to take solely non-GM deliveries, but the number of sites of each type and their exact locations are yet to be determined.

CBH was unable to say whether the map of GM grower locations, recently released by the Department of Agriculture and Food WA (Dafwa), would be used in determining the non-GM site locations.