BASEL, SWITZERLAND, Dec. 22, 2014 – Syngenta announced today that it has received the safety certificate for its Agrisure Viptera® trait (event MIR162) from China’s regulatory authorities, formally granting import approval.

Syngenta originally submitted the import approval dossier to the Chinese authorities in March 2010.

As Agri-Pulse first reported Dec. 15, Chinese officials informed a wide variety of seed industry officials that they had approved the seed trait, but they had not yet provided the official certificate.

The approval covers corn grain and processing byproducts, such as dried distillers grains (DDGs), for food and feed use.

In mid-November 2013, China began rejecting shipments of U.S. grain after finding the presence of Syngenta's Agrisure Viptera seed trait mixed in other corn shipments. A study by the National Grain and Feed Association (NGFA) estimated that U.S. exporters and farmers lost up to $2.9 billion because of the uncertain trade environment surrounding the product’s approval in China.

Agrisure Viptera® has been approved for cultivation in the USA since 2010 and has also been approved for cultivation in Argentina, Brazil, Canada, Colombia, Paraguay and Uruguay.

In addition to China, Agrisure Viptera® has been approved for import into Australia/New Zealand, Belarus, the European Union, Indonesia, Japan, Kazakhstan, Korea, Mexico, Philippines, Russia, South Africa, Taiwan and Vietnam.

#30

For more news, go to: www.Agri-Pulse.com