(Reuters) — Archer Daniels Midland Co. sued seed company Syngenta AG on Wednesday over sales of a genetically modified corn variety not approved for import by China, joining more than 100 farmers and exporters in pursuing damages from the Swiss-based company.
The lawsuit alleges that Syngenta commercialized the MIR162 corn variety, also known as Agrisure Viptera, without creating an effective stewardship program to ensure the grain would not be shipped to markets that have not approved it.
China has over the past year rejected shipments of more than one million tonnes of U.S. corn and corn products because they contained MIR162 grain.
Read Also
New Quebec ag minister named in shuffle
Farmers in Quebec get a new representative at the provincial cabinet table as Premier Francois Legault names Donald Martel the new minister of agriculture, replacing Andre Lamontagne.
The variety, planted on about three percent of U.S. corn acres during the past two years, can be found throughout the American supply chain because it has not been segregated from other varieties since its launch in 2011.
“These rejections have resulted in very substantial losses to U.S. exporters who have had their shipments to China turned away, including tens of millions of dollars in damages to ADM,” the Chicago-based company said in its lawsuit, which was filed in a state court in Louisiana.
ADM’s lawsuit alleges that Syngenta did not effectively put into effect a stewardship program designed to keep the MIR162 strain out of export channels until import approvals were granted by all major foreign markets.
Syngenta said the lawsuit was without merit.
Fellow grain exporters Cargill Inc. and Trans Coastal Supply Co. have also sued Syngenta seeking damages linked to China’s rejection of shipments. A group of Midwest farmers filed co-ordinated lawsuits last month seeking damages suffered from the drop in corn prices tied to the trade disruption, which the National Grain & Feed Association has estimated at more than US$1 billion.
