$218 million for farmers
Damage claim for GMO corn from Syngenta
Chemical and seed giant Syngenta must pay $217,7 million in damages to 7.000 arable farmers in the US state of Kansas. The company has sold farmers genetically modified grain maize varieties that its largest buyer, China, does not want to import.
A federal jury in Kansas City ruled Friday, June 23, that 7.000 Kansas farmers are entitled to compensation from the Swiss company. That writes Reuters news agency. As of 2013, the Chinese government did not allow the import of the syngenta varieties, thus seriously defrauding the farmers. The jury ruled that the seed company was mainly busy marketing the GMO varieties to its customers, while the sales were not in order.
$6
billion sek
Total damage almost 6 billion
This is the first case to serve on the subject in the US. Several thousand more grain maize growers and traders want to fight the chemical group in court. Lawyers' filings show that Syngenta's total compensation claim could reach $5,77 billion. Converted €5,16 billion. According to them, that is the total amount of damage to the agricultural sector. Syngenta does not accept the decision. It wants to compensate the growers, but not pay out damages.
4 years waiting for admission
In 2010, Syngenta started selling the GMO maize variety Agrisure Viptera, which has built-in resistance to insecticides. Another variety followed in 2013 under the name Agrisure Duracade. The growers accuse the company of making the varieties commercially available in the US before receiving permission from China to export these varieties. As of 2013, the country started refusing millions of tons of maize when the varieties were found to have no approval.
Total exports were disappointing
As a result of the import ban on the two specific breeds, costs rose to $5 billion, lawyers say. In December 2014, the first GMO variety was authorized by China. Duracade is still awaiting admission. 90% of all corn the US produces annually is GMO modified, according to USDA Agriculture Department. According to Syngenta, not only did maize exports to China fall, but this was also the case in other countries. They find it highly unusual for a new variety to be withdrawn from the market simply because China has not yet approved it.
Niels van der Boom
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