Corteva Inc has launched a new genetically modified soybean seed in Brazil following approval of the product in the European Union, a move likely to fuel competition on the local biotech seeds market.
In a statement on Tuesday, Corteva said its Conkesta product forms part of the company’s Enlist weed control package that also includes the Enlist E3 GMO soy seed recently launched in Brazil to compete with other biotech offerings.
The company said Conkesta can resist the same three weed killers as the Enlist E3 soy seed, as well as some types of caterpillars, a common plague of tropical agriculture.
The launch will give farmers in Brazil, the world’s largest soybean producer and exporter, new soy seed technology alternatives to Bayer’s Intacta RR2 Pro, which has enjoyed a virtual monopoly in recent years.
Roberto Hun, Corteva’s president for Brazil and Paraguay, told Reuters recently that the company’s GMO seed launches would give local farmers “freedom of choice.”
Conkesta soybean seeds will be available to Brazilian farmers in the 2021/2022 season, which kicks off next month in large grain states like Mato Grosso, at the heart of Brazil’s farm country.
The move coincides with Bayer’s commercial launch in Brazil of a soybean seed technology called Intacta2Xtend which is resistant to the herbicide dicamba, also available to farmers as of this year.
(Reporting by Ana Mano; Editing by Christian Plumb)
