Syngenta and DuPont receive approval for import of GM corn and soybean strain

Syngenta and DuPont have announced that China has officially approved imports of a type of genetically modified (GM) corn and soybean variety produced by the two companies respectively.

Owing to growing consumer sentiment against GMO food in China and concerns amongst some government officials about excessive dependence on US food supplies, China has taken more time than usual to approve biotech crops.

Syngenta’s Viptera corn has been under scrutiny since late last year, when China began rejecting US corn shipments due to traces of the unapproved strain, known as MIR 162.

While the strain has been approved for planting in the US since 2010, it did not have Chinese import approval until recently.

Syngenta’s approval covers corn grain and processing byproducts, including dried distillers grains (DDGs) for food and feed use.

The company originally submitted the import approval dossier to the Chinese authorities in March 2010.

In addition to China, Syngenta has received an approval to import Agrisure Viptera to Australia, New Zealand, Belarus, the European Union, Indonesia, Japan, Kazakhstan, Korea, Mexico, Philippines, Russia, South Africa, Taiwan and Vietnam.

A spokeswoman from DuPont Pioneer was reported by Reuters as saying that they had received ‘official notice today of the new approval’ for a Plenish soybean product, engineered to produce a healthier type of soybean oil.

US Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack said last week that China had approved imports of US-grown Agrisure Viptera corn, developed by Swiss-based Syngenta, along with shipments of biotech soybeans developed by Bayer CropScience and DuPont Pioneer.

However, the companies had not received any official confirmation from China at that time.