July 17, 2008
Days after announcing a US$112-million programme to upgrade its soy processing capacity, Brazil's largest agricultural cooperative, Coamo, announced plans to start producing GM corn this year.
According to Coamo's president Jose Aroldo Gallassini, this would be the first time the cooperative is planting GM corn.
Coamo plans to produce 7,000 60-kilogramme bags of corn in 2008-09 by using GM seeds across the cooperative, Aroldo said. Coamo produces mainly soy, corn and wheat across Parana state, the leading corn-growing state in Brazil, as well as in Mato Grosso do Sul and Santa Catarina states.
Brazil's National Biosafety Commission, or CTNBio, recently approved Bayer CropScience Ltd.'s (506285.BY) LibertyLink, Monsanto Co.'s (MON) Guardian brand of GM corn, and Swiss multinational seed company Syngenta's (SYT) BT11 transgenic corn.
GM soy, on the other hand, has become a favorite of farmers looking to squeeze a bit of extra profit per hectare out of their land as overhead costs soar.
Brazil is the world's No. 2 soy producer and has the potential to expand further with hardier GM strains of crops.
The cooperative already plants GM soy, which accounts for more than half of its crop.
More than half the soy planted in Brazil is the GM variety.