Syngenta sues Bunge over rejection of GMO corn type

Syngenta claims Bunge’s North America operations are illegally refusing to handle a type of genetically modified corn that is designed to protect the crop against insect damage.

 

In the suit, filed in US District Court in the northern district of Iowa, Syngenta claims Bunge has notified customers that it won’t accept Syngenta’s new corn, Agrisure Viptera, which received US regulatory approval last year.

 

Syngenta said Bunge has singled out its corn, along with a type of soybean from DuPont’s Pioneer Hi-Bred International, stating elevators cannot accept the grain because they don’t have necessary international approval from major export destinations.

 

Syngenta said the action is illegal and said it does have approvals for export to "major" export destinations, including Australia, Brazil, Canada, Japan, Mexico, New Zealand, the Philippines, Korea and Taiwan.

 

It does not have approval for China, however, and China has been buying an increasing amount of US grain in recent months.

 

Approval of the trait is pending in China and is expected early 2012. Syngenta said in its lawsuit that China is not a major export market for US corn because US corn imports represented less than 3% of the total 2010-2011 US corn exports.

 

As well, Syngenta said much of the corn Bunge receives in its network of grain elevators stays within the United States.

 

Bunge officials did not immediately respond to requests for comment.