July 27, 2005

Brazil expects sluggish starting sales of GM soybeans 
 

Brazil would be expecting sales of GM soybean seeds for the next harvest to be sluggish, mainly due to financial difficulties of farmers and royalties charged by US GM giant Monsanto Co., according to industry reports.

Brazil only legalised sales of GM soybean seeds earlier this year.

Coodetec, Brazil's largest producer of GM seeds, sold less than 10 percent of its seeds, compared with 90 percent at the same time last year. The company said low soy prices and crop losses due to drought had tightened domestic farmers' purchases.

Coodetec, one of Monsanto's partners in Brazil, produced about 2.5 million 40-kg bags of GM seeds for next year's harvest.

Brazil is expecting about 3 million bags of GM soybean seeds for the 2005-06 (from October to September) crop, which would cover 2.2 million hectares.

Monsanto had recently made an agreement with seed growers to charge 0.88 real/kilogram for use of its Roundup Ready (RR) soybean technology. Its RR seeds were cheaper to grow because they needed less chemical protection.