Monsanto Calls Off Plan to Sell GMO Seed in Argentina

Monsanto canceled plans to launch new biotech soybeans in Argentina and said it may withdraw seeds already sold there.

Monsanto has been discussing with Argentina a royalty-collection plan that it says is necessary to recoup investment on genetically engineered soybeans that can repel destructive worms or withstand herbicides. Authorities under Argentine President Mauricio Macri questioned the effort to collect payments from farmers.

Ricardo Buryaile, who heads Argentina’s Agroindustry Ministry, said Monsanto is playing hardball with a new administration. “You can’t put a pistol to the head of a government that has only been in power for four months,” Buryaile said.

Argentina is one of the biggest overseas markets for U.S. agricultural firms but has been struggling economically. It grew about 13.6 percent of the world’s genetically engineered crops in 2015.

Monsanto has struggled to maintain protections on its seed genes in Argentina. Patents on an earlier type of genetically modified soybean, engineered to resist Monsanto’s Roundup, didn’t hold up, and the seeds were bootlegged. Monsanto will not collect royalty fees on those seeds.

The company struck an arrangement that allowed it to charge Argentine farmers upfront for soybean genes or let them pay when they sold the crop. Orders under the country’s agriculture ministry in the Macri administration, however, question whether the government would let grain companies continue to test for Monsanto’s genes, then charge farmers royalties.

Dardo Chiesa, president of Rural Confederations of Argentina, said Monsanto is trying to get the government to apply a patent law to the dispute, instead of
Argentina’s seed law, which could allow the company to repeatedly collect royalties. The current model, he said, is raising legal disputes between farmers, grain storage companies and exporters.   Source: Wall Street Journal   S