Monsanto, Dow get OK for new biotech corn
Monsanto Co. and Dow AgroSciences said it won approval from U.S. and Canadian regulators to begin selling a new biotech corn to help farmers ward off weeds and bugs.
So-called SmartStax corn was jointly developed by Monsanto and Dow under a 2007 agreement. The companies plan to begin commercial sales of 3 million to 4 million acres next year.
Creve Coeur-based Monsanto, the world’s largest seller of biotech seeds, sees SmartStax as a blockbuster that could eventually be planted on 50 million to 65 million acres in the U.S., Chief Technology Officer Robb Fraley said Monday on a conference call with analysts. This year, 87 million corn acres were planted.
It represents Monsanto’s second major product in as many years and the platform for future genetic improvements in corn, the company said. Earlier this year, Monsanto began selling higher-yielding Roundup Ready2Yield soybeans.
Monsanto shares rose $4.20, or 5.5 percent, to $80.76 at 5 p.m. Monday in after-hours trading.
SmartStax is the first genetically modified corn that combines eight herbicide-tolerance and insect-protection genes cash loans.
Because the companies are integrating already-developed traits, the companies will be able to "put SmartStax on a fast-track," said Jerome Peribere, CEO of Indianapolis-based DowAgroSciences, a unit of Dow Chemical Co.
The approval by the Environmental Protection Agency and Canadian Food Inspection Agency is especially noteworthy because regulators agreed to reduce the "refuge area" for SmartStax.
The EPA currently prohibits farmers in the U.S. Corn Belt from planting insect-resistant corn on 20 percent of their acres (50 percent in the Cotton Belt) to guard against developing pesticide tolerance in bugs.
Shrinking the refuge area for SmartStax allows farmers to cut pesticide use and grow higher-yielding corn on more land, improving "whole-farm yield" by 5 percent to 10 percent, Fraley said.
Bloomberg News contributed to this report.