Source: Reuters via Checkbiotech

After eight months of talks, Paraguayan farmers agreed on Wednesday to pay royalties to U.S. seed company Monsanto for its genetically modified Roundup Ready soybean seeds in the 2004/05 crop year.

Paraguay is the world's fourth-largest soy exporter behind the United States, Brazil and Argentina. Output for 2004/05 is pegged at 4 million tonnes and an estimated 60 percent of the 2 million hectares sown with soybeans is believed to be GMO.

For years, farmers in Paraguay and neighboring Brazil and Argentina have seeded Roundup Ready without paying Monsanto royalties. Paraguayan farmers will pay $2.82 per sack of seed needed to sow about one hectare.

In Brazil, where GMO crops are due to be approved this week, there are only royalty accords in the southernmost state of Rio Grande do Sul and neighboring Santa Catarina.

In Argentina, where nearly 100 percent of the crop is Roundup Ready, negotiations continue with Monsanto. Royalty fees are built into seed prices, but because soybean seeds are widely traded on the black market, Monsanto is demanding another mechanism.

© Reuters 2005.