Brazil: Major Seed Deals
20 September 2007 According to ANBA, the Brazil-Arab News Agency, BASF and Embrapa, Brazil’s agricultural research corporation, are three to four years away from deploying biotech seed developed in Brazil.
The trait under research in the BASF-Embrapa collaboration would confer imidazolinone resistance to soybeans. Elibio Rech, who is leading up Embrapa’s end of the project, believes that within three or four years of launch, the Brazilian genetically modified (GM) soy could have a share of between 10% and 20% of the global market, which currently is dominated by Monsanto Co.
At the same time, a Monsanto announced plans to invest US $28 million in Brazil over the next five years to develop GM soybeans that combine Bacillus thuringiensis (Bt) resistance against soybean loopers (Anticarsia gemmatalis) with Roundup RReady2Yield glyphosate tolerance. The technology is the first from the company to be developed for markets outside the US, focusing exclusively on South America, Monsanto noted.
"The improvement in the regulatory process and the respect for intellectual property rights in Brazil has determined this new investment," the president of Monsanto Brazil, Alfonso Alba, said.
The Monsanto investment will be released after the opening of research stations in Tocantins, Parana, and Rio Grande do Sul.
Further strengthening its business in the country, Monsanto also announced the acquisition of the Brazilian corn seed company, Agroeste Sementes (Xanxere). The acquisition covers all of Agroeste’s businesses, including its corn seed brands. Agroeste supplies farmers throughout Brazil, supplying around 10% of the country’s corn area, according to Monsanto.
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