Excerpt: some buyers willingly halted imports of U.S. corn to avoid importing problematic cargoes, traders said.

"Wait and see" would be a safe approach since the Japanese government has yet to establish a testing method to check if a cargo contains BT10 corn, traders said.
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Syngenta's GM goof temporarily slows Japanese demand for corn
Soya and Oilseed Industry News, 6 April 2005
http://www.soyatech.com/bluebook/news/viewarticle.ldml?a=20050406-5

Nikkei English News via NewsEdge Corporation:

SINGAPORE (Dow Jones) -- News that Swiss biotech firm Syngenta is being investigated for having inadvertently sold an unauthorized strain of genetically-modified corn in the U.S. and European market has raised some concern among Japanese importers, trade participants said Tuesday.

U.S. and E.U. regulators lately launched the investigation after Syngenta told them it mistakenly sold BT10, as the strain of corn was known, in the U.S. and into Europe for four years without approval.

The news renewed concerns in Europe about the safety of GM products.

Syngenta said it never applied for approval of BT10 because it opted for a newer version of the product called BT11, which is cleared for marketing in the U.S., Europe and Japan.

In the wake of such dilemma, both importers and government agencies in Japan said they are now scrambling to put together practices and policies that will have to address consumer concern and bio-safety while ensuring normal flow of corn imports.

"BT10 has not been approved (in Japan), so in principle there shouldn't be any such seed in our import cargoes intended for food or feed purposes. But (in practice), BT10 could have been 'commingled' in some corn imports into Japan, just as they have been in Europe and in the U.S.," said a Tokyo-based grains trader.

"We would be in trouble if the Japanese government decides to reject such cargoes and asks us to send them back to the U.S.," he said.

As a result, some buyers willingly halted imports of U.S. corn to avoid importing problematic cargoes, traders said.

"Wait and see" would be a safe approach since the Japanese government has yet to establish a testing method to check if a cargo contains BT10 corn, traders said.

Decision-Making Takes Time

But some buyers said they import as usual since they believe the Japanese government would not want to see corn imports grounded.

Moreover, "the U.S. government would approve BT10 soon and Japanese government would second that opinion," said another Tokyo-based trader.

Syngenta has said BT10 corn is safe and presents no change to the food, health and environmental profile of the corn because the proteins produced by BT10 are identical to those produced by the commercialized and fully registered BT11 variety.

Japan's Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries is expected to address importers' concerns by clarifying the government's stance on bio-safety issues related to corn imports.

But since the Syngenta news has been thrust into media spotlight, a decision to balance all interest groups would take time, traders said.

"We are still consulting with the Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare (before reaching a decision)," said Kazunari Sakai, an official at Japan's Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries.

Meanwhile, time if running out for importers why said they have only three weeks to wait for a government decision before having to resume imports.

"The longer they (importers) wait, the less inventories of corn they have. The Japanese food and feed companies will resume importing corn within three weeks, with or without government solution," said a trader.

Japanese corn buyers are in the phase of booking May-June shipments, with about two thirds to three quarters of demand covered, traders said.

Japan imports around 16.4 million tons of corn annually, comprising 4.4 million tons for food and 12 million tons for feed, traders said.

-By Feiwen Rong, Dow Jones Newswires; 65-6415-4083, This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. - Edited by Denny Kurien