(Syngenta lawsuits) US$5.7b damages claimed from GMO corn
Finance | 24 Apr 2017 1:20 pmSyngenta decided to commercialize its Viptera brand of genetically modified corn seeds before China approved importing it. Syngenta invested over US$100 million and 15 years in developing Viptera, which has a trait called MIR162 that protects against pests such as earworms, cutworms, armyworms and corn borers.
With U.S. government approval, Syngenta began selling Viptera in the U.S. for the 2011 growing season. But China didn't approve it until December 2014.
Court papers show that Syngenta initially assured stakeholders that China would approve MIR162 in time for the 2011 crop. But the date kept slipping. Some exporters sent shipments containing the trait to China anyway. After two years of accepting them, China began rejecting them in late 2013.
One expert working for the plaintiffs estimated the damage to U.S. farmers to be US$5.77 billion; another pegged it at US$4.68 billion.
Most plaintiffs didn't grow Viptera, but China excluded their grain, too, because elevators and shippers typically mix grain from large numbers of suppliers, making it difficult to source corn that was free of the trait. So they say all farmers were hurt by the resulting price drop. -AP
