Replies to post #106303 on Biotech Values

[DewDiligence]

MON Boosts Market Share of Argentine Corn

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2010-10-20/monsanto-expects-to-win-corn-market-share-in-argentina-on-record-crop.html

›By Rodrigo Orihuela - Oct 20, 2010

Monsanto Co., the world’s largest seed company, expects to boost its market share of corn seeds in Argentina on forecasts that farmers will plant a record crop.

Monsanto will likely take 52 percent of the market for corn seeds this year, up from 50 percent last year, Pablo Ogallar, the company’s head of marketing in Argentina, said today in an interview. An increase in the crop size from a year ago also means total sales will climb, he said.

Argentina, the world’s second-largest corn exporter after the U.S., will grow a record 26 million tons of the grain in the 2010-2011 season, according to the Agricultural Ministry. This year’s harvest was about 22 million tons, matching a previous record that Argentine farmers had in the 2007-2008 season.

The final crop size this season “will depend on availability of seeds because companies expected an increase in planting, but not this big,” Ogallar said. More corn is being planted than originally forecast because of high global prices of the grain, which reached a two-year high last week, and good weather conditions, he said.

Regional Revenue

Monsanto’s corn business in Argentina, Paraguay, Uruguay, Chile and Bolivia represented about $400 million in sales in the 2009-2010 season, about 75 percent of its total regional revenue of about $650 million, according to Ogallar. Argentina represents about 80 percent of the unit’s sales, he said. The South American business accounts for about 8 percent of Monsanto’s global corn seed sales. Monsanto does not sell soybean seeds in Argentina, the world’s third-largest producer [see #msg-51993032 for the reason].‹

[DewDiligence]

MON Expects 80% Soybean Share in Brazil

[The driver is the newly approved stacked product with the anti-bug and RR2Y traits—see the prologue of #msg-53568148. The product will be available for the 2012 growing season in the Southern Hemisphere and is the only product of its kind approved in Brazil.]

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-02-18/monsanto-sees-brazil-soy-seed-share-exceeding-80-on-new-strain.html

›By Lucia Kassai and Fabiola Moura - Feb 18, 2011

Monsanto Co., the world’s largest seed company, expects planting of its genetically modified soybeans in Brazil to exceed 80 percent of the crop for the first time this year as it sells new varieties engineered for major producing regions.

“The varieties that best fit parts of the Center-West region are coming to market, and that will help us to expand our share,” Country Manager Andre Dias said in a phone interview from Sao Paulo on Feb. 16. Brazil’s Center-West produces 47 percent of the country’s soybeans.

Growers in Brazil, the world’s biggest producer after the U.S., increased the use of genetically modified seeds to 76 percent of the crop last year from 71 percent a year earlier and less than 1 percent five years ago, Belo Horizonte, Brazil-based research firm Celeres said in a Jan. 21 report. Monsanto seeds are currently the only biotech soybean varieties being sold in Brazil.

About 10 percent of Monsanto’s sales of $10.5 billion in the fiscal year that ended Nov. 30 came from Brazil, its biggest market after the U.S. The St. Louis-based company said last month that sales of soybean seeds and genetic licenses climbed 12 percent in the three months ended Nov. 30, compared with a year ago, driven by Latin American demand.

Roundup Ready soybeans are engineered to tolerate glyphosate-based herbicides, including Monsanto’s Roundup, the world’s best-selling weed killer.

Planting of biotech soybeans in Brazil may grow at a slower pace in coming years the market approaches its full potential, Dias said. “We are running very close to the limit,” he said.

Brazilian Caterpillars

In an effort to boost sales in Brazil in coming years, Monsanto plans to start selling new biotech soybeans that combat bugs and resist herbicides next year, said Marcelo Nishikawa, the Brazilian unit’s manager of soybean biotechnology. The beans are modified to tolerate glyphosate and to produce Bt, the insect-killing protein derived from Bacillus thuringiensis, a natural insecticide that kills caterpillars, Nishikawa told reporters in Pirassununga, Brazil on Feb. 15.

The Intacta RR2 Pro soybean was developed by Monsanto primarily for Brazil, as caterpillars are a plague common in the South American country, Dias said.‹

[DewDiligence]

Monsanto Revisits Soybean Sales in Argentina

[Unlike corn (where commercial seed is hybrid and hence manufacturers can’t be ripped off by bootleg seed from the prior season), soybean seed can be reused in violation of manufacturers’ licenses. Because Argentina does not have a legal framework that allows MON to collect royalties on soybeans, MON does not currently sell the second-generation RR2Y soybean product in that country.

On the other hand, Argentina grows a lot of soybeans, so MON would like to be able to sell RR2Y soybeans there to augment the expected sales in Brazil (where MON’s IP is well protected). I’m skeptical of the workaround described in this Reuters story, but it’s pure upside for MON if it works out. See #msg-60109375 and #msg-51993032 for related info.]

http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/06/07/argentina-monsanto-soy-idUSN0717504320110607

›Tue Jun 7, 2011 1:33pm EDT
By Hugh Bronstein

BUENOS AIRES, June 7 (Reuters) - Bruised by a lengthy battle over royalties in Argentina, U.S. seed giant Monsanto (MON) is asking the country's farmers to sign contracts promising to pay to use the company's new seed technology.

The unusual drive underscores Monsanto's determination to win market share in the world's No. 3 soy exporter and its jitters about operating in a country where business leaders often complain about changes to the rules of the game.

By signing agreements with individual Argentine farmers who are seeking to boost output with its genetically modified (GM) soy variety Roundup Ready 2 Yield, Monsanto says it will get extra protection to guarantee royalty payments.

"We want to sign the contracts to be sure there's a consensus ... We don't want to go with the force of law alone," Monsanto spokesman Pablo Vaquero said. Farmers accounting for nearly a third of Argentina's soy output have already signed.

Monsanto's wariness stems from its experience with the original Roundup Ready soy variety, which was never patented in the South American country -- although it became ubiquitous -- provoking years of legal wrangling with the government. The new strain has already been patented.

However, Monsanto's move has angered small-scale growers, who have been allowed to sow original Roundup Ready seeds harvested from their own fields without paying royalties.

They accuse Monsanto, the world's largest seed company, of trying to monopolize production in Argentina and of effectively excluding smaller farmers from using new seed technology by demanding too much in royalty payments.

"We're defending farmers' right to re-use their seeds because they can't pay royalties indefinitely," [LOL—then don’t use MON’s proprietary seeds] said Julio Curras, a leader of the Argentine Agrarian Federation, which represents small- and medium-sized farmers.

Monsanto has genetically modified corn, soy and other crops to tolerate treatment with its glyphosate-based Roundup herbicide, making it easier for farmers to kill weeds.

The Roundup-resistant seeds have been a major revenue driver for Monsanto, but the patent on the first Roundup Ready strain expires in 2014 and the company has been trying to convince customers to move to the newer version.

It says the Roundup Ready 2 Yield soy has heightened resistance to certain pests and herbicides, boosting yields.

Monsanto was unable to patent the original Roundup Ready soy in Argentina. The company's battle to get royalties dragged on for years and saw court injunctions hold up Argentine soymeal shipments in European ports.

The company is under time pressure because Roundup Ready 2 Yield is set to be introduced next year in neighboring Brazil. [Unlike Argentina, Brazil has established a process by which MON collects royalties when growers bring their soybeans to market.]

If Argentina does not have a new control system by then designed to protect the patent and allow Monsanto to license local seed dealers to sell Roundup Ready 2 Yield, the seeds will likely be smuggled in from Brazil [as happened with first-generation Roundup Ready soybeans].

GMO BOOST

The introduction of GMO soy has helped Argentine farmers boost output dramatically over the last 14 years, but industry analysts say current rules deter seed companies from marketing strains using the latest technology.

Agriculture officials are working on a reform of the country's seed law, but the bill is unlikely to be sent to Congress before an October presidential election and some analysts think it could take two years to become law.

Small-scale growers would be exempted from the new law and allowed to carry on saving seeds from the harvest to replant at sowing time, without having to pay royalties. [This sounds like a deal-breaker, IMHO.]

In the meantime, many farmers have signed Monsanto's contracts because they fear losing competitiveness if they miss out on new varieties being used by their counterparts in other leading grain exporters such as Brazil and the United States.

Competitiveness is a concern in Argentina, where farmers pay a 35 percent export tax on soybeans and double-digit inflation is increasing costs.

"In the short term, the way forward is going to be through contracts," said Ernesto Ambrosetti, chief economist at the Argentine Rural Society, which represents some of the country's biggest soy farmers.

"We don't have the luxury of falling behind or losing productivity."‹

[DewDiligence]

Biotech Crops Will Get Faster Reviews, USDA Says

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-02-22/genetically-modified-crops-will-get-faster-approval-usda-says.html

›Feb 22, 2012 2:17 PM ET
By Jack Kaskey

Seed companies including Monsanto Co. (MON), the world’s largest, will get speedier regulatory reviews of their genetically modified crops under forthcoming rule changes, the U.S. Department of Agriculture said.

The goal is to cut by half the time needed to approve biotech crops from the current average of three years, Michael Gregoire, a USDA deputy administrator, said today in a telephone interview. The changes will take effect when they’re published in the Federal Register, probably in March, he said.

Approvals that took six months in the 1990s have lengthened because of increased public interest, more legal challenges and the advent of national organic food standards, Gregoire said. U.S. farmers worry they may be disadvantaged as countries such as Brazil approve new technologies faster [e.g. #msg-55517002], said Steve Censky, chief executive officer of the American Soybean Association.

“It is a concern from a competition standpoint,” Censky said in a telephone interview.

One way the USDA plans to speed up approvals is by inviting public comments as soon as seed developers such as Monsanto and DuPont Co. (DD) file a complete petition for deregulation of a biotech crop, rather than waiting until the end of the review, Gregoire said. That will allow regulators at the USDA’s Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service, or APHIS, to address any concerns as they conduct their environmental analysis and risk assessment, he said.

Budget Increase

“We can improve the quality of decisions by providing for this earlier public input in the process,” Gregoire said. “We are not sacrificing quality at all.”

Congress is helping to speed crop reviews by increasing APHIS’s budget for biotech regulation to a record $18 million this year, from $13 million in 2011, Gregoire said.

The Center for Food Safety, a Washington-based non-profit group that has successfully challenged approvals of Monsanto’s Roundup Ready sugar-beet and alfalfa crops, said the rule change is aimed at preventing opponents of modified crops from voicing criticism of the agency’s methods.

“They are trying to work the system so they can dismiss public comments more quickly and easily in order to speed things up,” Bill Freese, a policy analyst at the group, said in a telephone interview. “It’s a rubber-stamp system. A real regulatory system will occasionally reject something.”

Under the rule changes, new versions of existing crop technologies, such as corn that produces a naturally occurring pesticide, would undergo a review lasting about 13 months, Gregoire said. That would be accomplished by making the agency’s determination final after a 30-day public review period, he said.

For new technologies, such as a crops engineered to tolerate a new herbicide, there will be a second comment period after the agency makes its preliminary decision, extending the overall duration of the review to about 16 months, he said.

Which of these two regulatory routes is taken for each of the 22 biotech crops currently under review will be announced along with the publication of the rule change, Gregoire said.‹