Argentine seed law will be revised in the future in a bid to attract more biotechnology investments.

1. Argentine seed law to be revised to attract more biotechnology investments
Summary: Argentine seed law will be revised in the future in a bid to attract more
biotechnology investments.
Tag: GM crop, Rice, Pesticide, Fertilizer, Registration
The Argentine government is revising its seed law and expects that the new seed law will attract
the multinational companies to increase their investment in biotechnology business, so as to
promote the development of the biotechnology industry in Argentina, according to CCM’s
September issue of South America Crop Protection Monthly Report.
The new seed law draft established by the National Seed Committee (CONASE) is submitted to a
temporary committee organized by Argentine Ministry of Agriculture. The temporary committee's
members are from the Farm Bureau and seed companies producing transgenic products, and
they discuss some details of the draft at a meeting, but there is still no consensus so far.
Unlike the current seed law, the new seed law draft is mainly focused on the transgenic soybean
royalty payments problem. Argentine farmers generally use the new soybean seeds generated
from the old seeds bought from the seed companies without paying any royalty so as to cut the
planting cost, but the new law is to prevent farmers from doing so, since this action has hurt many
seed companies, thereby eroding their willingness to invest in Argentine biotechnology business.
Corn planting area is the second largest in Argentina, but different from soybean seeds, corn's
pollination process dilutes the transgenic traits quickly and farmers need to buy corn seeds
directly from the companies every year to enjoy the yield-enhancing benefits.
Currently, the main argument is how to implement the royalty payments for the seed companies
in the future. It is estimated that the new law will be continuously debated over the next few
months and the Ministry of Agriculture is optimistic that the Congress may pass the draft at the
end of 2012. "We've decided to push forward the seed law draft in an effort to prompt Argentina
to be a leader in food production," Agriculture Minister Norberto Yauhar said in a press release in
Aug. 2012. Although the new seed law will raise the farmers' cost in planting soybean, the yield-
enhancing benefits brought by the new transgenic soybean seeds such as the new products
made by Monsanto and the promising future of soybean processing industry in Argentina will
guarantee the farmers' interest to some extent.
As the new seed law will have the potential to improve the income from the seed royalty
payments, many multinational enterprises are optimistic about the future of the Argentine
biotechnology market.

2. Carlos Becco, Director of Syngenta Soybean Department in Argentina, believes that the
establishment of the new seed law is a good news for the country, which not only helps his
company increase the competitiveness in Argentina, but also creates more favorable conditions
for attracting new investment in Argentina. The data statistics reflect the importance of the royalty
payments in biotechnology investment. According to the information of the seed industry, the
R&D of a new event represents an average investment of USD136 million and an average term of
13 years.
The new seed law will help companies recoup their investment in a shorter period and improve
companies' willingness to invest in new programs, thereby promoting the development of
biotechnology. Among the biotechnology companies, Monsanto will become the biggest
beneficiary when the new seed law is officially launched. Recently, transgenic soybeans planted
in Argentina are mainly the Roundup Ready (RR) soybean produced by Monsanto.
As the new seed law will be launched in the future, it is believed that the transgenic business in
Argentina will recover, regaining the competitiveness against Brazil and even returning to the
dominating position in South America.
Before 2006, the total authorized transgenic products in Argentina surpassed Brazil, dominating
the biotechnology field in South America. But in 2006, the Brazilian government established a
country-level biotechnology policy which redesigned the regulatory framework for transgenic
application process. This policy streamlined the application process and made the benefits
obtained by seed companies more reasonable. Thanks to Brazilian government's action,
biotechnology investment environment in Brazil gradually became attractive and many
multinational enterprises decided to develop their biotechnology business in Brazil instead of
Argentina.
In addition to the multinational companies, Brazilian enterprises are also willing to invest in
biotechnology business under the favorable policy. For instance, an imidazolinone tolerant
soybean co-developed by Brazilian Agricultural Research Corporation (Embrapa) and National
Institute of Agricultural Technology (INTA) now is at the final stage of testing and will be launched
in the coming years.
Due to the lack of the royalty protection in Argentina, the transgenic development in Argentina
has stagnated and is surpassed by Brazil. According to the statistics, adding the new soybean
and corn from Dow AgroSciences approved by the Argentine government, Argentina has
approved a total of 27 events including corn, soybeans and cotton as of Aug. 2012, compared
with 33 in Brazil. Argentina has more maize events approved than Brazil, 20 versus 18. As for
soybeans, 5 events have already been authorized in Brazil, versus 4 in Argentina.

3. Source: South America Crop Protection Monthly Report 1209
http://www.cnchemicals.com/Newsletter/NewsletterDetail_256.html
Content of South America Crop Protection Monthly Report 1209：
GM crops help increase consumption of pesticides in Brazil
Soybean seed in Brazil may be in short supply in 2012/13
Venezuela to import more rice by exporting urea
Brazil sells rice in stock
Brazil to invest USD18.9 billion in fertilizer industry
Pesticide companies face difficulties in registration in Latin America
Brazil extends credit limit for corn planting
Argentine seed law to be revised to attract more biotechnology investments
Cheminova's Authority ® gets registration in Brazil
Proficol enters Peru pesticide market
Ecuadorian government continues efforts to control snail plague
Argentina starts new round of control for grapevine moths
Cassava pests may break out in Southern Brazil
Brazilian transgenic planting area to increase by 12% in 2012/13
South America Crop Protection Monthly Report , a monthly publication issued by CCM
International on 31th of every month, offers timely update and close follow-up of South America's
Crop Protection industry dynamics, analyzes market data and finds out factors influencing market
development.
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