Brazil to re-export or burn US GM corn cargo

www.planetark.org

BRAZIL: January 20, 2003

SAO PAULO, Brazil - Brazil's Agriculture Ministry said last week a shipment of U.S. corn found to contain traces of banned genetically modified organisms will have to be burned, re-exported or used for paper production.

Odilson Ribeiro, Director at the ministry's plant safety department, said the shipment of 7,400 tonnes of U.S. corn at the port of Itajai in Santa Catarina state tested positive for trace amounts of genetically modified material, which would preclude its use in animal or human foods or for planting.

Tests run by the ministry turned up 0.25 percent GM material in the shipment.

The importer, National Starch Chemical Industrial, which produces corn starch for industrial foods and for paper production, is contesting the finding, telling the financial daily Valor that the U.S. corn is certified as GM-Free.

A company representative was not available for comment and the paper did not say for what purpose the corn was intended.

Jose Valerio, president of the firm, also told the paper that the level of transgenic material in the corn was at most 0.1 percent, putting it well within the legal 4 percent limit permitted by Brazil before the product can be considered genetically altered.

Brazil bans any commercial or experimental use of genetically modified food crops. The country's growing livestock industry has also been struggling with a 1 million