Court ratifies Mexico’s GM

IN BRIEF

USA: Leading US seed company Beck’s Hybrids has purchased Bayer’s soyabean seed production and processing plant in Beaman, Iowa, which could process and treat 1M units/year of soyabeans, World Grain reported on 24 August.

Beck’s is the third largest corn and soyabean seed brand in the USA, according to the report.

USA: US food technology firm Benson Hill announced on 17 September that it was acquiring a soyabean crushing facility in Seymour, Indiana, to further strengthen its position in the supply of proprietary, non-genetically modified (GM) identity preserved and sustainable soya protein and oil ingredients for the human food and animal feed markets.

“This targeted investment can ultimately provide the production capacity to deliver on our integrated business model for commercialisation and scaling of our … soyabean products, including Ultra-High Protein (UHP) soyabean ingredients.”

Benson Hill’s CropOS platform combines data science and machine learning with biology and genetics to accelerate breeding, according to the company website.

The acquisition, subject to customary closing conditions, was expected to close by the end of September.

Court ratifies Mexico's GM corn and glyphosate ban

The Supreme Court of Mexico has unanimously denied four appeals against the ban on genetically modified (GM) corn and the herbicide glyphosate, according to local press reports.

Challenges presented by seed manufacturers including Bayer-Monsanto, Syngenta, PHI and Dow were all rejected by the court, AgriCensus wrote on 15 October.

The four companies had called for a suspension of a precautionary measure that prevented the use of GM corn in the country and had mounted numerous legal challenges over several years appealing the decision.

A presidential decree, which was published in the Official Gazette of the Federation on 31 December 2020, had banned the use of glyphosate, along with imports of GM corn, from January 2024, AgriCensus wrote.

Abel Rodriguez Montejo, an analyst with local consultancy firm Grupo Consultor de Mercados Agricolas (GCMA), told AgriCensus that the ban would have a negative impact on farmers’ profitability as glyphosate helped them to reduce costs.

“Once this product is banned, farmers will have less profitability and corn production could be negatively impacted as glyphosate does not have a substitute product,” he said, adding that the GMO ban would be difficult to manage.

Mexico is largely self-sufficient in white corn but depends on imports of mostly GM yellow corn from the USA for livestock feed, according to AgriCensus.

African Union developing GM guidelines

The African Union (AU) is developing guidelines for genetically modified (GM) crops to encourage increased adoption in the region, Bio Market Insights reported on 7 September.

Currently, only seven countries in Africa – Eswatini, Ethiopia, Kenya, Malawi, Nigeria, South Africa and Sudan – have approved the commercial production of GM crops, according to the report.

While many opposed the development of novel crop strains, the push for a shift in perception was gaining momentum, boosted by the recent success of projects in places such as Nigeria.

In the AU’s draft report on

The African Union hopes to encourage increased GM crop production Calyxt says seedless hemp offered improved yields and quality GM crop commercialisation, Peace Mutuwa from the group’s agriculture and rural development unit said new regulations would be used to protect consumers and countries from “unwitting consumption” of GM products. It was hoped that under the new guidelines, seed regulations could be homogenised to help countries achieve food security and improve crop yields, Bio Market Insights wrote.

Corteva to take longer to penetrate Brazil's GM soya market

US crop protection and seed producer Corteva expects to take up to three times longer to break into Brazil’s genetically modified (GM) soya seed market than it did in the USA, Reuters reported the company as saying on 8 October.

In a statement on 24 August, Corteva announced the launch of its GM Conkesta E3 soyabean in Brazil.

Corteva’s rival – German chemical firm Bayer – has had a virtual monopoly in the country, with a vast network of sales staff and longstanding relationships with farmers, seed developers and manufacturers in Brazil, according to the report. Corteva, meanwhile, was just establishing its presence in the country.

Brazil’s adoption of GMO crops helped it become the world's biggest seller of soyabeans used for livestock feed but weeds and pests had become resistant to the chemicals those crops could withstand, Reuters wrote. For this reason, Bayer and Corteva were both seeking to convert Brazilian growers to their next-generation GM seed varieties that could tolerate newer herbicides, Reuters wrote.

“The adoption of the Enlist system in Brazil will take a little longer than in the United States,” Corteva said in an e-mailed statement to Reuters, due to limited seed quantity in Brazil.

The company captured 35% of the US soya-planted area within three years of launching Enlist, Reuters said. However, in Brazil, Corteva estimated it would take five to 10 years to reach that level.

Corteva is also launching a more expensive soybean seed in Brazil called Conkesta.