Argentine GMO corn cleared for Chinese market
Print Edition
China has approved its first shipment of genetically modified (GMO) Argentine corn.
Argentine Agriculture Minister Norberto Yauhar said on Tuesday that Chinese health authorities cleared 60,000 tons of GMO Argentine corn. The cargo was already headed inland to be used as hog and chicken feed.
“For many years we have worked to gain access to the Chinese market. Today we did it with a cargo of very high quality corn,” Yauhar said in a statement that named trading company Bunge as the exporter of the cargo.
“The authorities in China have finally let us in, opening a potentially enormous market for our corn.”
Argentina is the word’s No. 3 corn and soybean exporter, as well as its top supplier of byproducts such as soyoil and soymeal. China is already a major buyer of Argentine soy.
The Argentine corn was imported by China’s state-owned trading house COFCO and left Argentina about a month ago, three Buenos Aires-based grains trading sources said, hours before Yauhar’s statement.
The market knew since May that Argentine corn was headed to China. But questions lingered as to whether it would be approved for entry by China’s General Administration of Quality Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine.
“The cargo has now been approved by the AQSIQ and the vessel has been discharged in China. The corn is officially imported and on its way to end customers,” said a source at a trading firm in Buenos Aires.
Chicago corn prices have fallen sharply from record highs last summer, and many analysts and traders expect prices to fall further on prospects of a bumper crop this season in the United States.
In contrast to last year, the world is expected to be awash with corn for the foreseeable future, keeping prices in check. Argentina’s 2012/13 crop is nearly all harvested.
China is seen by corn futures traders as a wildcard in their attempt to pencil in specific price projections.
Most Argentine corn is genetically modified. A small amount was allowed into China late last year as a test case under a China-Argentina GMO deal signed in February 2012.
There is broad scientific consensus that food on the market derived from GMO crops pose no greater risk than conventional food. However, advocacy groups argue the risks of GMO food have not been adequately identified.
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