Syngenta Corn Lawsuit

Syngenta Corn Lawsuit

In 2013 and 2014, corn farmers lost billions of dollars when China rejected all corn shipments from the United States. The action by China was a result of GMO corn sold by Swiss-based Syngenta, which was not approved for sale in China.

Syngenta failed to obtain pre-market approval of its GMO seed before it was sold to farmers throughout the United States. The presence of unapproved, GMO corn in U.S. corn supplies resulted in a dramatic drop in the price of corn. By marketing GMO corn before ensuring its approval in foreign markets, Syngenta harmed hundreds of thousands of corn farmers across the United States, including those who did not use the company's corn.

Syngenta's Failure to Obtain Approval from China for GMO Corn Caused U.S. Corn Prices to Drop

In 2009, Syngenta released Agrisure Viptera (MIR162), a genetically engineered corn developed to protect corn against damage from insects.

In 2011, Syngenta sued Bunge North America when the company refused to buy or store Viptera corn because it was not approved for sale in China. On August 28, 2012, CEO Mike Mack addressed the situation in China when he stated:

On the import approval, it has import approval in all of the major markets. There isn't outstanding approval for China, which we expect to have quite frankly within the matter of a couple of days. That remains on track for approval to the very best of our ability. Of course, the regulatory authorities are not something that we can handicap definitively, but we know of no issue whatsoever.

Syngenta marketed Agrisure Viptera without approval from China. In fact, Viptera was not approved by the Chinese government until December 2014.