| SAO PAULO,
Brazil, December 1, 2003 -- CropChoice news -- Reuters,
11/28/03: The government is studying alternative
ports to Paranagua for exporting the 2003/04 (Oct/Sep)
soy crop following a Parana state law banning the export
of GM soybeans, the transport ministry said.
"Parana is already a bottleneck. My role is to
create conditions in other ports so that all the soy
is shipped," Transport Minister Anderson Adauto
told reporters, referring to huge queues of soy trucks
outside the port in recent years.
The minister has set up a working group to discuss
the issue and it will meet for the first time next week.
The group consists of representatives from the Agriculture
Ministry, National Association of Cereals Exporters
(Anec) and the Brazilian Agriculture and Livestock Confederation
(CNA).
Although the Oct. 27 Parana state law, which bans the
planting, processing, sale and transport of genetically
modified (GM) crops, has been challenged in the courts,
the government believes it may still be in force next
year.
"It's clear that GM soy won't be sent there (Paranagua)
so we must think of alternatives," said Adauto
speaking at a cereals exporters' dinner in Sao Paulo
on Thursday.
Exporters strongly criticized the Parana state law,
which comes ahead of an expected record soy crop in
2004.
"Next year we will have 1.5 million soy (truck
and train) loads arriving at Paranagua. I want to know
how one can test them all for GM material ?" Sergio
Mendes, Anec executive secretary, said in a speech.
Despite the Parana GM crop ban, hundreds of soy producers
in Parana state have signed a federal government document
saying that they will plant GM crops.
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