Japan Shuns US Corn Over GE Issue

Japan turns to other sources for Corn
www.CropChoice.com news.

(April 9, 2001 --Cropchoice news)--

Rather than testing for and eliminating any U.S. corn shipments with
transgenic traits it has not approved, especially StarLink, Japan is buying
corn from elsewhere. It's turning to China, Brazil, Argentina and South
Africa to cover the majority of its first quarter corn needs. Japan
recently launched a "zero tolerance" policy toward unapproved transgenic
foods. But rather than spending the money on tests that likely would
reveal StarLink in U.S. shipments, inspectors and buyers are willing to
pay premiums for corn from other places. The Japanese health ministry
will randomly inspect 58 shipments of U.S. corn for food consumption
through March 31, 2002. This amounts to 5 percent of all the 1,200 U.S.
corn shipments registered during fiscal 1999-2000. Any corn that tests
positive for StarLink will be directed to industrial uses, destroyed or
returned to sender. In accordance with the agreement that Japan and the
United States reached last year, U.S. authorities now test for Starink
in all the corn that's headed to Japan. This will become even more
necessary as the availability of Argentine and Brazilian corn dwindles in
late July or August.

Sources: BridgeNews,
Doane's.