August 23, 2007

Japan approves Syngenta GMO corn seed

Syngenta AG's genetically modified (GMO) corn seed got the nod from Japanese authorities and can now be used in animal feed, following its approval for use in human food.

Japan has a zero-tolerance policy on imports of unapproved GM crops. The delays in the approval of the GMO seed, which contains a trait called Agrisure RW that makes the corn resistant to the crop-damaging insect root worm, could have hurt imports from the United States.

Syngenta first launched Agrisure RW in the United States this year to help farmers boost yields to meet strong demand for corn in food, feed and fuel usages.

The pending approval from Japan has sparked concern among US grain firms, such as Bunge Ltd. and Cargill Inc. as accidental commingling before approval could contaminate cargoes from the United States.

Corn is the main ingredient used in animal feed in Japan.

While domestic corn production is negligible, Japan last year imported some 12 million tonnes of corn for feed use from the United States, worth more than 200 billion yen ($1.7 billion).

Agrisure RW is now one of 16 GMO corn seeds approved for feed use in Japan. The others came from Monsanto, Bayer, Dow Chemical, DuPont and Syngenta.

This number does not include seeds with double or triple stacked traits of those approved, which effectively works as two or three straits combined.