Bayer to halt residential sales

IN BRIEF

INDIA: The Indian government has confirmed it will allow the import of up 1.2M tonnes of genetically modified (GM) soyabean meal to meet a shortage in domestic feed for the livestock, poultry and aquaculture industries, AgriCensus reported on 24 August.

The feed industry said a shortage in domestic feed had contributed to surging soya meal prices.

Since the start of August, soya meal prices had ranged between INR9,000-9,500/ quintal (US$1,213-1,281/ tonne) before increasing to INR9,700/quintal (US$1,308/tonne) on 24 August, the report said.

BRAZIL: Biotech seed producer Corteva Inc said on 24 August that it had launched its genetically modified (GM) Conkesta E3 soyabean in Brazil, which was was tolerant to its Enlist Colex-D and Enlist Duo Colex-D herbicides, as well as glyphosate and glufosinate herbicides.

Corteva said Conkesta E3 soyabeans had recently received EU authorisation for food and feed use. This followed its earlier authorisation in several other export markets, including China.

The company said it was also planning to launch the product in Argentina and Uruguay.

Bayer to halt residential sales of Roundup in USA

German chemical giant Bayer will stop selling glyphosate-based herbicides for residential use in the USA starting in 2023, Chemical & Engineering News (C&EN) reported on 30 July.

The move was “exclusively geared at managing litigation risk and not because of any safety concerns”, Bayer CEO Werner Baumann said during a 29 July call with investors.

The company would reformulate its glyphosate-based residential weedkiller, sold under the Roundup brand, but did not say what active ingredient it would use.

Bayer has faced more than 125,000 lawsuits in the USA claiming that its glyphosate-based herbicides contributed to their non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma, a type of cancer. The company inherited the litigation with its US$63bn takeover of global agrochemical firm Monsanto in 2018.

In its 29 July investor call, Bayer said it would allocate an additional US$4.5bn to deal with the lawsuits connected to its Roundup weedkiller.

The allocated funds were in addition to the US$11.6bn that it had previously set aside to fight and settle the Roundup litigation, according to a Bloomberg report on 29 July.

The additional funds updated the company’s “five-point” plan, released in May, for handling future litigation.

Glyphosate is the world's most widely used weedkiller and is used in conjunction with seeds, such as soyabeans and corn, which are genetically modified to be resistant to it.

ADM to buy non-GM soya ingredient firm

Global agribusiness giant Archer Daniels Midland Co (ADM) announced on 26 July that it will acquire leading European non-genetically modified (GM) soya ingredient company Sojaprotein.

Established in 1977, Serbia-based Sojaprotein is active in 65 countries, offering a range of non-GMO vegetable protein ingredients for European and global customers in the meat alternative, confectionery, protein bar, pharmaceutical, pet food, and animal feed sectors. In 2020, the company had sales of more than US$100M.

ADM said the acquisition,

Sojaprotein supplies non-GM soya products such as protein and oil Calyxt says seedless hemp offered improved yields and quality which was subject to regulatory approvals, would build on its recent investments in alternative proteins, including its soya protein complex in Campo Grande, Mato Grosso do Sul, Brazil; its new pea protein plant in Enderlin, North Dakota; and its PlantPlus Foods joint venture.

New EFSA report concludes glyphosate is not carcinogenic

A new draft report by the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) has concluded that the herbicide glyphosate is not carcinogenic, Olive Oil Times reported on 24 August.

“Glyphosate cannot be classified as a carcinogen,” the Assessment Group of Glyphosate (AGG), which produced the report on behalf of the European Commission (EC), said. “The drug can cause serious eye damage, but it is not carcinogenic, has no effect on the sex cells and does not affect reproduction.”

The findings followed intense lobbying from glyphosate-based herbicide manufacturers, including Bayer, to extend the use of glyphosate beyond 2022 in the European Union (EU), the report said.

One of the most widely used herbicides globally, glyphosate was labelled by the World Health Organization’s International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) as “probably carcinogenic to humans” in 2015, which led some European countries to ban it, Olive Oil Times wrote.

The EU re-approved the herbicide in 2017 but only for five years.

A consortium of eight glyphosate manufacturers – commonly known as the Glyphosate Renewal Group – submitted a request in 2019 to approve a renewal post-2022, the report said.

In response, the EC appointed four member states (Hungary, Sweden, France and the Netherlands) to look into the request and the four states formed the AGG.

After evaluating the dossier presented by the glyphosate manufacturers, the AGG ruled there was insufficient evidence to demonstrate chronic or acute consumer risk when crops were treated with glyphosate as long as it was used according to the manufacturer’s instructions, Olive Oil Times wrote.

On 15 June, the AGG submitted its findings to the European Food Safety Authority and the European Chemical Agency, which would now begin a peer review process before either approving or denying the renewal, the report said.