2012-04-30
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Major Asian buyers led by China are set to approve genetically modified corn within the next three to five years to give yields a boost as growing demand for meat drives greater consumption of the staple, the world’s top agrochemicals company said. Changing diets and greater wealth are pushing up demand for corn, a key source of animal feed, in Asia. But local yields are not enough to meet demand, triggering imports and inflation. This is accelerating the push to improve yields and food security, said Davor Pisk, chief operating officer for Basel-based Syngenta, one the world’s top seed firms.
2011-12-21
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Spot checks conducted in 2011 found “isolated examples” of genetically modified plants near research laboratories and a station in different places in Switzerland. [...] The plants found near laboratories belonging to the universities of Lausanne, Basel and Zurich were thale cress (Arabidopsis thaliana) [...] The universities were informed and asked to discover how the plants got out. Genetically modified rape was found at the station in Lugano. The canton was asked to discover where it came from.
2011-10-17
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A scramble by South American growers to cash in on high corn and soybean prices sparked a forecast-beating 21% jump in Syngenta’s sales, extending a rebound in shares in the seed and sprays giant. Syngenta said that Latin American growers were behind a 50% jump in selective herbicides in the July-to-September quarter, ”increasingly in demand” thanks to growing resistance among weeks to conventional weedkillers. And, in seeds, Latin American sales soared 60% to $187m, making it Syngenta’s biggest selling region during the quarter, overtaking Europe, where the period witnesses the start of sowings of winter crops.
2011-10-07
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Switzerland’s fight to maintain non-genetically modified crops in the face of a larger pool of world GM seeds has been given a boost by researchers at the ACW (Agroscope Changins-Wädenswil) federal research station. Two new hybrid seed varieties, Amandine and Falbala, are ready for market [...] The federal department of agriculture notes that while 81 percent of the world’s soya crops are now from genetically modified seeds, 30 years of natural selection of non-GM soya seeds at ACW is resulting in seeds that are well-suited to Swiss soil and climate conditions.
2011-09-05
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First there’s the biofuels craze, driven by concerns over energy independence, oil supplies, global warming and, ironically, Mideast political stability. Add to that, especially in Europe, a paralyzing fear of genetically modified crops, or GMOs. This refusal to use ”available technology” in agriculture, Mr. Brabeck-Letmathe contends, has halted the multi-decade rise in agricultural productivity that has allowed us, so far, to feed more mouths than many people believed was possible. [...] ”We can feed nine billion people,” he says, with a wave of the hand. And we can provide them with water and fuel. But only if we let the market do its thing.
2011-08-23
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Syngenta Seeds, a unit of the world’s largest agrochemicals company Syngenta AG has filed suit against major grain handler Bunge for refusing to accept a type of its biotech corn. Syngenta claims Bunge’s North America operations are illegally refusing to handle a type of genetically modified corn that is designed to protect the crop against insect damage.
2011-08-10
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The European Patent Office awarded Syngenta a patent on melons „with a pleasant taste”, after an opposition filed by another seed company to revoke the patent had been rejected. [...] In the patent application (EP1587933) the taste of the melon is described as „tart-refreshing-sour-sweet”. With this patent Syngenta claims intellectual ownership of all melons with a certain citric acid and sugar content as well as a specific pH-value, including everything from the plant and seeds to the pulp and its uses. The „invention” is the result of common breeding and selection techniques (no genetic engineering), using, as source materials, among others, melons of Indian origin.
2011-07-25
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A key official for Syngenta says the global ag company is committed to expanding worldwide wheat production. [...] ”When we bring a hybrid wheat on the market, it will be a solution for a producer as opposed to just saying we have a hybrid wheat,” [Paul Morano, key account manager for cereals] said. Syngenta hopes to transform wheat production worldwide by creating new standards for yield, quality and sustainability, they said. New marker-assisted breeding and double haploid technology will allow the company to get better-targeted products to market more quickly.
2011-07-12
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Syngenta says its strategy will save it some $650 million in annual costs, while more than doubling its sales of chemicals, seeds and new integrated products for growing corn, soybeans, cereals, oil seeds, rice, sugar cane and other key crops over the next five to 10 years. CEO Mack sounds confident about his new plan: “We are the only company in our industry that has the diversity of assets for this strategy.” The $9 billion global crop-protection outfit sells nutrients, fungicides, herbicides, insecticides and seed-care chemicals. Its $3 billion seed operation sells conventional and genetically modified (GM) seeds for field crops, vegetables, cereals, lawns and gardens.
2011-05-24
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Trying to keep genetically modified organisms from contaminating traditional crops could cost up to a fifth of the total production cost, a study concludes. This figure comes from a report done by the national agricultural research organization, Agroscope, and Zurich’s Federal Institute of Technology. Switzerland currently has a 2013 moratorium in place for GMOs.
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