4-Patents: More about Monsanto's retreat from Argentina

[GENET <coordination@genet-info.org>]

                                  PART I
-------------------------------- GENET-news -------------------------------

TITLE:  Argentine Soy Exports Are Up, but Monsanto Is Not Amused
SOURCE: The New York Times, USA, by Tony Smith
        http://www.nytimes.com/2004/01/21/business/worldbusiness/
        21monsanto.html
DATE:   Jan 21, 2004

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Argentine Soy Exports Are Up, but Monsanto Is Not Amused

SÃO PAULO, Brazil, Jan. 20 - Booming soy exports may be a boon to
Argentina's convalescent economy, but Monsanto has stopped selling its
Roundup Ready soybean seeds because a sharp rise in black-market sales of
genetically modified seeds has badly cut into the company's revenue.

Argentina, the world's third-largest soybean producer, exported nearly 25
million tons of soy meal and oil last year. The nearly $5.5 billion
earned from soy exports in the first three quarters of last year gave the
economy a much-needed lift as it gradually recovers from a four-year
recession that led to a default and a currency devaluation in 2002.

Land planted in soy has tripled over the last decade to nearly 32 million
acres in 2003, spurred partly by the huge productivity gains farmers have
made by using seeds genetically modified by Monsanto to resist its
Roundup Ready herbicide.

But instead of buying seeds from Monsanto each year, farmers can cull
seeds from their crop and save them for replanting, without harming
harvest yields. Monsanto, based in St. Louis, estimated that more than
half the transgenic seeds planted in Argentina in the October-November
planting season were bought on the parallel market, compared with a fifth
three years ago.

Some analysts say the rapidly growing black-market trade - oddly enough,
called "bolsa blanca," which in Spanish can mean either "white market" or
"white bag," for the white, unlabeled sacks farmers stash culled seeds in
- has pared Monsanto's Argentine revenues from $580 million in 2001 to
$300 million in 2002.

Although the company, which does not break out sales figures for
Argentina, says such claims are exaggerated, its executives acknowledge
that the damage is severe.

"It has come to the point where it is impossible even to cover our
costs," said Federico Ovejero, a Monsanto official in Argentina,
explaining the decision to suspend sales and research and development in
the country.

Monsanto could resume selling soybean seeds, he said, if the government
ensured renewed enforcement of the law, guaranteeing "a fair return" for
seed producers.

Soy-related products accounted for 15 to 18 percent of Monsanto's sales
in Argentina last year, but analysts said the company's soy business
would double in value if farmers did not use culled seeds.

At the root of the problem is the abolition in November 2000 of the
National Seed Institute by the administration of Fernando de la Rúa, who
was president then. Mr. de la Rúa's government promised to cut
bureaucracy and corruption by closing what it considered to be one
superfluous institution every month.

"The only problem was that they only got round to abolishing one, the
seed institute, which in fact was quite an efficient organization that
did a reasonable job in policing regulations" on planting, Mr. Ovejero said.

Moving to placate vexed seed companies, President Néstor Kirchner's
government reopened the institute last month, but details of how it will
watch over farmland spread over such a huge country are unclear.

Monsanto's move is widely seen as an attempt to squeeze the government
into strengthening seed legislation that is before Congress or at least
to enhance enforcement of existing law.

In the past, farmers have been able to cull seeds by exploiting a
loophole in legislation intended to protect small farmers. The government
has said that it intends to tighten that loophole.

With Monsanto out of the game, just three major companies - Nidera
Handelscompagnie B.V. of the Netherlands and Asociados Don Mario and
Relmó, both of Argentina - control the Argentine soy seed market, yet all
must pay royalties to Monsanto if they sell soy resistant to Roundup Ready.

According to Francisco Firpo, director of Nidera Semillas, the Dutch
company's Argentine unit, Monsanto's refusal to invest further in
developing seeds for Argentina's climate and soil could mean long-term
productivity losses for farmers.

That, in turn, could mean that farmers may become more willing to respect
tighter regulations once the government seed agency is operating at full
strength again.

"Argentine farmers are extremely receptive to new technology and know how
to value the payback it brings," Mr. Firpo said.


                                  PART II
-------------------------------- GENET-news -------------------------------

TITLE:  U.S. Monsanto may start operations in Argentina again under certain
        conditions
SOURCE: SA LA Nacion, Argentina, via Latin America News Digest
        posted by checkbiotech
        http://www.checkbiotech.org/root/index.cfm?fuseaction=newsletter
        &topic_id=2&subtopic_id=9&doc_id=6980
DATE:   Jan 20, 2004

------------------- archive: http://www.genet-info.org/ -------------------


U.S. Monsanto may start operations in Argentina again under certain conditions

U.S. agrochemicals company Monsanto, which announced it had left the
Argentine soybean seeds market, expects to start again operations in the
sector in Argentina, but only when more attractive conditions prevail,
the company said on January 19, 2004. Monsanto announced it would stop
selling its soybean seeds in Argentina on January 18, 2004. Monsanto was
affected by the number of illegal seed producers in the country, the
company said, which made its business and investments non profitable. The
withdrawal of Monsanto from the Argentine market had a repercussion on
the companies in the sector. These companies may decide to leave the
market too, a source from the sector said. The seeds producing companies
expect a return on investments, in order to be able to continue further
studies, Antonio Aracre, general manager of the Argentine division of
Swiss agrochemicals maker Syngenta Seeds, Syngenta Seeds Argentina
(www.syngenta.com.ar) said. Only 18 pct of the soybean sowed in Argentina
in the 2003/04 campaign were legal, the company said. A total 14 million
hectares of soybean were sown in the last campaign in Argentina. Monsanto
had sold soybean seeds for 450,000 hectares, in the last campaign before
it withdrew from the market. Monsanto has not left Argentina's soybean
market forever, a spokesperson of the company said, adding that the
company's decision should not be considered as a pressure on the
Government. International environmental organisation Greenpeace accused
Monsanto on January 19, 2003, of having blackmailed the Government to
approve the liberalisation of genetically modified maize, and to stop the
farmers from keeping seeds of genetically modified soybean seeds, with
its decision to withdraw. Soybean seeds production represents some 10 pct
of the company's business in Argentina, the remaining 90 pct are
represented by sales of agrochemicals and sales of maize and sunflower
hybrid seeds.




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