October 9, 2006

 

Monsanto to bill Brazil farmers for old illegal GM soy

 

 

Monsanto confirmed Friday (Oct 6) it will charge Brazilian farmers for Roundup Ready soybeans illegally purchased prior to the 2005 law that permitted the planting of genetically modified soy in Brazil.

 

Brazilian farmers, especially those in Rio Grande do Sul, who illegally purchased Monsanto's seeds and kept those seeds for future use will have to pay a technology usage fee of 2 percent over the sales value of a 60-kilogramme bag of soybeans. Farmers will have until May 2007 to pay. Those who don't pay on time will get a 2.7 percent charge over the bag price, Monsanto said.

 

A Monsanto spokesperson said the company didn't have any estimate for the total amount expected from the technology fees in 2007 because it would have to divide the fees with three companies licensed to create GMO soy varieties based on the Roundup Ready gene.

 

The companies are government-owned crop science institute Embrapa and privately owned Fundacao Mato Grosso and Coodetec. The Brazilian Seed Association, Abrasem, and Coodetec were unavailable for comment. Fees derived from Coodetec GMO soy sales would have to be shared with Monsanto, Monsanto said.

 

Under the new GMO rules, farmers will be required to declare whether the soybeans they are delivering to warehouses and exporters are transgenic. Simple tests can verify if the seeds were GMO.

 

On Sep 29, Monsanto said it will cut royalty payments for its Roundup Ready soybeans in the 2006/07 season in response to an ongoing liquidity crisis on Brazil soy and grain farms. Farmers must pay royalties of 0.30 Brazilian reals (0.13 US cents) per kg for new seed purchases compared with 0.50 reals per kg in the 2005/06 crop season, Monsanto said.

 

A farmer who purchases seeds pays royalties and is given a non-transferable certificate of origin that lists the quantity of GMO seeds purchased and the quantity that the farmer will be permitted to sell. The buyers' data will be put into a system used by traders and warehouses that confirms the volume of transgenic soy the farmer planted in 2006/07. The production volume per seed purchased is based on average soy yields per state, as defined by the Agriculture Ministry.

 

Monsanto said tests for GMO from farmers who don't have a certificate of origin will have a margin of error, or lower productivity requirements, to protect farmers from eventual accidental mixtures of GMO seeds with conventional ones.

 

Farmers who paid royalties will be required to pay the 2 percent technology usage fee if the volume of GMO soy is beyond what was expected from the volumes of seeds purchased, in order to cover against farmers who had stored seeds during the years Monsanto wasn't permitted to sell Roundup Ready in Brazil.

 

Roundup Ready soy entered Brazil illegally for years, most of it smuggled through Argentina and Paraguay.

 

Roundup Ready is the only biotech soybean permitted in Brazil at this time, though Embrapa, Coodetec and Fundacao Mato Grosso varieties are the most sold transgenic seeds in Brazil.

 

Brazil is the world's second largest soy producer.