Archer Daniels Midland and Syngenta Settle Lawsuit
US grain merchant Archer Daniels Midland (ADM) and Swiss agrochemicals group Syngenta have settled a lawsuit over Syngenta’s launch of a biotech corn strain that had negative effects on the US company’s grain exports to China.
The settlement was reached in December 2017, according to a filing by ADM with the US stock market watchdog US. Securities and Exchange Commission recently picked up by news agencies.
ADM sued Syngenta in 2013 for selling the corn variety Agrisure Viptera, or MIR 162, in China before the government had approved it for import. As a result, China rejected US corn cargoes containing the unauthorized strain. This led to losses amounting to “tens of millions of dollars” for ADM, the company has claimed.
The Swiss group was also sued by another major US grain dealer and ADM competitor, Cargill, as well as by US corn growers. The agrochemicals producer now owned by ChemChina reached a $1.5bn settlement with the growers in September of last year, reports said. The Cargill case is set be heard in this September of this year.
Syngenta said it “continues to defend itself” against the claims of other exporters. The Swiss producer told Reuters that it “continues to believe that American farmers should have access to the latest US-approved technologies to help them increase their productivity and crop yield.”
The news agency said US growers are also suing ADM, claiming the company was negligent in failing to screen for biotech corn. China’s refusal to accept the shipments caused corn prices to plummet. According to the SEC filing, ADM remains a defendant in court actions in the US state of Illinois, which it has tried unsuccessfully to dismiss.
China approved imports of Viptera corn in 2014.
