from As Reported in the News
Pew Initiative on Food and Biotechnology

Brazil is a mere five years away from being a power to reckon with in the grain industry, reports Lloyd's List.

According to David Halligan, president of UK-based Grain and Feed Trade Association, approximately 14m hectares of land will soon be under wheat production in Brazil, making the expected soyabean crop one that will not only rival the US harvest, but might exceed it. He said: "They are opening up virgin savannah land that in four or five years will give rise to a soyabean crop and will also allow Brazil to become a significant maize exporter. Brazil doesn't figure on the current WTO export list, but in five years it certainly will."

Soya production has risen 10% annually in recent years, and is expected to rise even further following the government's decision to legalize the planting and sale of genetically modified soyabeans.

Farmers in Brazil have been smuggling illegal transgenic soya seeds from neighboring Argentina for several years and rough estimates say that a third of the massive 19m hectare soya belt is transgenic. Brazil accounts for a quarter of the world's soya supply and is the number two producer after the US, reports Lloyd's List.

The decision to legalize GM seeds is not without controversy, evident in the protests by environmental and consumer groups and the Congress Green Party's decision to challenge the constitutionality of the decree in the Supreme Court. Mr Halligan said: "The state of Parana is also trying to resist the move and stay with conventional seed, but I know from being in Brazil that many farmers want to get into GM after seeing the success had in Argentina. I don't think that Brazil is concerned with what the UK wants, the farmers just want to get on with GM. Going GM will give them an economic advantage."

Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva said that the decision to legalize GM food was one that could no longer be ignored. "There were two options: either we prohibited GM soya and ordered the police to set fire to it - which would have been a horrible picture in a country suffering from hunger - or we could create a situation allowing its sale." He said he realized that the policy to legalize GM soy could hurt producers of conventional soyabeans, but stressed that the government "would regulate GM with serious effort".

Mr Halligan said: "We in the UK have a very strong non-GM soya policy, and are a long way from finding it acceptable. With Brazil our biggest supplier going GM the crucial questions in Europe are these: Where do we go to buy non-GM food? How much are consumers willing to pay for non-GM food? What is the premium going to be and how will the European market react to this?"

According to Lloyd's List, he was skeptical of President Lula's assurances, stating: "There is no infrastructure to ensure segregation at ports. Europeans who want conventional soya will have to arrange separate deals with areas where segregation is possible, and that is where the cost comes in."

In an attempt to reduce costs for transporting soyabeans, CVRD is considering constructing a soy drier at Marabastate), near the company's Carajas to Sao Luis iron ore railway, which is expected to stimulate soyabean planting near the railway. It also invest $ 300m annually for five years to increase rail and port handling capacity.Growing issue: A cargo ship is filled with soybeans at the port of Santos in Brazil, left, and Greenpeace activists uproot a genetically modified crop, according to the Lloyd's List report.

As Reported in the News is a weekday feature that summarizes one of the most interesting stories of the day, as reported by media from around the world, and selected by Initiative staff from a scan of the news wires. The Initiative is not a news organization and does not have reporters on its staff: Posting of these stories should not be interpreted as an endorsement of a particular viewpoint, but merely as a summary of news reported by legitimate news-gathering organizations or from press releases sent out by other organizations.