Monsanto has lost its permit to commercialize genetically modified (GMO) soy in seven Mexican states, Reuters reported.
Mexico’s agriculture sanitation authority SENASICA revoked the permit – a decision that the St. Louis-based seed giant called unjustified.
Citing a SENASICA document, Mexican newspaper Reforma reported that the permit was revoked after authorities detected Monsanto’s GMO soy in unauthorized areas.
But Monsanto rejected that argument. According to a statement seen by Reuters, the company claimed that the authorities did not analyze how the soy on which their decision was based was sown.
Monsanto alleged that the permit was withdrawn on unwarranted legal and technical grounds and warned that it would take the necessary steps to safeguard its rights and those of farmers using the technology.
The permit revocation applies to the states of Tamaulipas, San Luis Potosi, Veracruz, Chiapas, Campeche, Yucatan and Quintana Roo.
Monsanto’s presence in Mexico has a storied history, especially over corn, the country’s staple crop. The company has long wanted to grow corn in the country but earlier this year, a Mexican court upheld a 2013 ruling that stopped even pilot plots of GMO corn over how it could affect the environment, Reuters reported then.
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