The number of U.S. grain elevators, mills and feedlots that will buy a type of biotech corn banned by China has more than doubled since July, indicating growing domestic acceptance for a product seen as a potential risk to international trade.
The announcement, coming just before the start of the planting season, is aimed at convincing farmers to buy Duracade corn seed by assuring that they will have places to deliver their harvests.
Two of the world’s biggest commodity traders, Cargill Inc and Archer Daniels Midland Co, refuse to accept Duracade corn at facilities because it is still not approved by all major importers. In an attempt to keep Duracade corn out of unapproved foreign markets, Syngenta last year hired grain merchant Gavilon, owned by Marubeni Corp, to develop a network of elevators, mills, feedlots and ethanol plants that would accept farmers’ harvests for use in the United States.