Gazeta Mercantil (Brazil's leading financial daily newspaper). 

São Paulo, June 9th, 2003 - Producers challenge judiciary, pirate seeds and say that they will plant more in 2003/04. While the judiciary decides if the planting of transgenic seeds will be legal or not, in Rio Grande do Sul producers have, a long time ago, started using a lot the new technology. 'I have been planting it for two years, but I know producers who have been planting transgenics for almost six years' says producer Paulo Braatz, from Ibirubá (Rio Grande do Sul), city located 295 km from the capital of that State, Porto Alegre, and considered, together with its neighbors Tupanciretã and Cruz Alta, one of the starting points of the genetically modified soybean in Brazil.

At the crops 2002/03, Braatz only planted transgenic seeds, brought from Argentina some years ago and multiplied in his own farm. 180 hectares were cultivated and 69,55 bags of 60 kg were produced by hectare. He calculates that, if he had planted conventional soybean, the productivity would not have been more than 60 bags. 'The plantation cost is smaller and the profit is bigger' he adds.

Braatz calculates that the production cost of the transgenic soybean varies from R$ 450 to R$ 500 the hectare, 30% smaller than the conventional one, of R$ 700. 'The use of herbicides is practically the same. The difference is that the glifosfate - used in the transgenic crops - costs 50% less than the mix of herbicides that would have to be used in the conventional plantation'.

The item 'cost' has been reason for the increase of genetically modified soybean in the South region of Brazil. 'From the 100 thousand hectares cultivated in the region, 90% are planted with genetically modified seeds', says Jaime Tauchert, manager of Cotribá (Mixed Agriculture Cooperative from General Osório). Tauchert says that the cultivation of transgenics exists since 1997, but it has become more intense on the past three years. In 1997, the productivity of Ibirubá was of 28 bags per hectare. Six years later, it has practically doubled, to 55 bags. 'It is probably one of the best performances in all the state', says Aurelino Farias, technician from Emater (Company for Technical Assistance and Rural Extension). The average productivity of Rio Grande do Sul state was 43.3 bags per hectare.

The producers, as well as the industry, are waiting for a decision from Justice on what will be the future of transgenics in Brazil. There is no certainty on when a definite decision on the subject will be reached, but the truth is that the producers are not the only ones who are planting and looking forward to an approval. The Brazilian Institute of Agriculture Production, Embrapa, at the sector Embrapa Soybean, for example, has over 20 cultivars ready to be launched in the market as soon as they are approved. 'We have seeds from all kinds, that can be planted all around the country', says Alexandre Catellan, head of communications and business of the institution. While Justice does not decide the future of transgenics in Brazil, the producers intend to continue planting and multiplying seeds- although it illegal. 'There was a time when the producer smuggled soybean at a false cover in the trunk of the car. Today most of the producers multiply seeds in their own farms' says Tauchert.

Tauchert believes that there are today around 30 varieties of genetically modified seeds illegally commercialized in the country. He also says that the seed producers from Ibirubá sell cultivars to be planted in the states of Piauí, Maranhão, Mato Grosso, Minas Gerais, Bahia and Paraná. 'There are various transgenics of a longer cycle perfectly adapted to the Mid-West region of Brazil. I know soybean producers that plant transgenics in Sorriso, a city in Mato Grosso state'.

The pirating of seed in Brazil brought the anger of the North-American producers who pressured the multinational Monsanto to demand the payment of royalties from the seeds which are illegally multiplied. 'What is past should remain in the past. This is how Monsanto should act', says Braatz. Although he multiplies seeds illegally, he says he would rather buy them from a supplier he could trust. 'When I plant with certified seeds, I know what I am buying. Pirated cultivars have no guarantee of origin, and, mainly, they can bring any kind of disease to the farm' he says.

In countries like United States and Canada, where transgenics are authorized, Monsanto sued producers that, as they say, inflicted the patent law pirating seeds. There is a fear that the same could happen in Brazil.

(Finances & Markets/Page B12)(Lucia Kassai)

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