The second largest exporter of soya after the US, a large percentage of Brazil's soya seed market is said to rely on contraband seeds smuggled in through Argentina and other countries.

Now, after a decade with this state of affairs, the Brazilian government is thinking of letting farmers swap those illegal GM soya seeds for legalized varieties.

One problem has been that users of the contraband seed have not technically been eligible for financing or rural insurance from the state-owned banks offering lowest interest credit.

For the past two years, intense lobbying, coupled with fears that the country's legal seed market was not large enough to account for demand, persuaded the Brazilian government to approve temporary permission for farmers to use non-legal GMO soya seeds. Now that there are GMO soya seed stocks, some developed by the state-linked agricultural research firm Embrapa as well as Monsanto's Roundup Ready variety, it makes sense to put the whole activity on a legal basis.

The Brazilian government is also looking at a presidential decree for the approaching soya harvest which would allow farmers legally to use the non-legal seeds. But local seed associations oppose the suggestion because, they say, it makes little sense this year when the cost of legal seeds is almost the same as that of the illegal ones.

Although affecting the whole country. the seeds black market is most active in the southern state of Rio Grande do Sul; 95% of the soya seeds there are smuggled in from other countries or retained from previous harvests.

Source:

Grace Fan. Brazil govt may swap illegal GMO soy seeds for legal ones. Dow Jones (30.8.06)

<<<back