Four large seeds producers have withdrawn their applications to cultivate genetically manipulated maize in Germany, federal agriculture minister, Christian Schmidt, has announced.

Schmidt linked the withdrawal palns by Syngenta, Monsanto, DuPont Pioneer and Dow Agroscience to Germany’s decision to opt out of cultivating GM crops, in tandem with 19 other EU countries.

“In future,” the minister asserted, “GM maize will no longer be cultivated for commercial purposes in Germany.”

In presenting the country’s arguments for opting out, the agriculture ministry had argued that the cultivation of GM maize was inconsistent with Germany’s customary agricultural practice. In particular, manipulated plants could threaten the country’s conventional and ecologically grown crops.

Environmental advocates are giving the minister relatively little credit, however. Harald Ebner, spokesperson for the German Green party in the federal parliament, Bundestag, said the opt-out was not legally binding, and the government was dependent on the good graces of the agrochemical industry.

While the Greens have criticized the absence of a nationwide ban on manipulated crops, Schmidt said bans should be pronounced by the federal states instead, as the agricultural sector plays by different rules in different regions.