May 4, 2012
Australia's CBH not buying GM rapeseed price guarantee
Western Australian (WA) CBH Group is not buying up genetically modified (GM) rapeseed at guaranteed prices.
The herbicide-resistant rapeseed was introduced in WA in 2010 and now 10% of WA's rapeseed crop is GM. However, the price of GM rapeseed is sliding - it is not purchased in European countries where buyers do not want GM products entering the feed chain.
The situation has prompted the Australian Wheat Board to offer to buy up supplies of GM rapeseed at guaranteed prices but CBH's Tom Puddy says the grain handler does not have plans to follow suit.
"At this stage CBH is interested in buying non-GM rapeseed for the European market, to qualify for that market, that's the best paying market, so our objective is to steer growers in that direction," he said.
He says the crop is unpopular in Europe because buyers do not want GM products entering their food chain.
"It's just the European market saying they want to use more biofuels but they don't want them to come from genetically modified crops because the by-product is very difficult for them to sell into the feed market," he said.