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Syngenta official: technology should not be withheld
A Syngenta official says there’s a long-term risk in withholding biotechnology advances from U.S. farmers. Responding to lawsuits against Syngenta, Agrisure commercial traits lead Duane Martin says growers and companies need new technologies as they become available.
“The fact that this has become a delay, an increase in potential costs, a legal and regulatory risk, certainly makes the decision to bring new traits, new technology to the market much more difficult for technology providers like Syngenta,” Martin told Brownfield Ag News.
The Viptera trait that resulted in China rejecting shipments of U.S. corn was commercialized with all legal and regulatory compliances in place, said Martin. The trait had also been approved by key countries identified as major U.S. markets, he said. China was not among them.
Martin Phipps, an attorney for the plaintiffs suing Syngenta, says Viptera should not have been commercialized without import approval by China.
“Syngenta was clearly aware of the possible harm that could occur if they put something in the marketplace that didn’t have worldwide acceptance by our trading partners,” Phipps told Brownfield Ag News.
Plaintiffs want damages connected to a 2013 drop in the corn market that they say resulted from Chinese rejections of U.S. corn shipments. Syngenta’s Duane Martin points to USDA records that show the corn price dropped 32 percent from the middle of June to the middle of October 2013.
“The first load of corn was rejected in China on the basis of the [MIR-]162 trait in late November of that year,” said Martin. “The corn price had already dropped and leveled off before the first load of corn was rejected by the Chinese; it apparently had little to no relation to the issue surrounding the Viptera trait,”
Syngenta has a website called VipteraChinaFacts,com that Martin says contains information compiled from third party sites regarding the trait. Martin Phipps’s law firm has a website representing the point of view of the plaintiffs in the suit.
AUDIO: Duane Martin — Syngenta (10 min. MP3)
AUDIO: Martin Phipps — plaintiff attorney (12 min. MP3)
THE CAUSE OF THE PRICE DROP IN CORN IS THE FARMERS THEMSELVES. THEY PLANTED ALL THE CORN THEY COULD AND FLOODED THE MARKET WITH CORN;