November 22, 2006

  

French corn farmers embracing biotechnology

 

 

French corn farmers are increasingly embracing biotech, despite continued consumer resistance and the absence of a national law on the coexistence of biotech and non-biotech crops, according to a USDA report posted Tuesday.

 

French area planted to biotech corn is expected to increase five times to 5000 hectares this year.

 

While a French biotech bill has been under consideration for more than a year, the bill is very unlikely to be voted on by the National Assembly before May 2007, as the French government considers the biotech issue too controversial during a political campaign.

 

Instead, France will likely pay heavy daily fines to Brussels, with most of the product likely to be sold in Spain for animal feed.

 

After years of virtually no commercial production, France is entering into its second year of significant GM corn production ion in 2006. Almost all corn planted were Bt corn variety MON 810.

 

MON 810 corn is resistant to the European corn borer.

 

In 2005, the French biotech evaluation committee "Commission du Genie Biomoleculaire" (CGB) authorized 21 GM dossiers for testing on 80 open field test plots (covering 23 hectares)

 

GM producers tested include Biogemma, Monsanto, Meristem Therapeutics, Pioneer, the French Research Institute in Agriculture (INRA), and the French planting seed institute (GEVES).

 

In 2006, the French Ministry of Agriculture authorized 17 new research programmes in open fields on GM products. The traits tested include pharmaceutical applications, lower water requirements, compatibility with more environmentally friendly herbicides, and insect resistance.

 

Most agricultural biotech product imported into France is soybean meal labeled as containing biotech ingredients, while less than a fourth consists of soft IP products (below the 0.9 percent threshold), and the remainder (less than 5 percent) is hard IP product, which is traced back to the field to guarantee non-biotech origin.

 

There is a lack of EU regulation is this sector in terms of biotech traceability, labeling and thresholds. The French seed industry recommends using the same threshold for biotech as the one set for food and feed, i.e., 0.9 percent.

 

Due to a lack of soymeal nimal feed, France imports large quantities of soybeans and meal.

 

Due to the biotech issue and prices, US exports of soy and products to the French market have declined while Brazil's share of the market increased. Brazilian imports now account for three quarters of the imported soymeal in France.

 

France is trying to reduce its reliance on foreign soymeal through increased rapeseed production.

 

With the recent boom in biodiesel production in France, domestic production of rapeseed meal has increased significantly and rapeseed meal has become increasingly important to dairy cattle feed. However, as it is difficult to substitute soymeal for rapeseed meal in poultry, the need for large quantities of soymeal imports still exists.

 

France is no longer importing corn gluten feed for animal feed. The French starch industry  processes starch from locally produced corn, wheat and potato. Due to biotech concerns, wheat is increasingly used, partially replacing corn to process starch.

 

In 2003/04, almost half the starch produced in France was derived from wheat, 43 percent from corn, and 10 percent from potato.

 

The US is France's largest supplier of corn planting seeds. In MY 2004/05, French imports of corn seeds for sowing from the United States amounted to US$ 49.4 million.

 

In this market, the US is facing increasing competition from Hungary, as Hungarian seeds are cheaper than US seeds and GM-free.

 

The French government may face EU fines of EUR 168,000 a day starting in December if amendments to French laws are not made in time.

 

In order to avoid these heavy penalties and fines, the French government is considering transposing some parts of the Directives directly into decrees, through administrative procedures.

  

For further information on dossiers in the pipeline in France, please see the French intergovernmental website (information is in French) on agricultural biotechnology: http://www.ogm.gouv.fr/