China has placed its first order for U.S. corn after seven consecutive weeks of cancellations as the two countries dispute over Syngenta’s GMO corn strain AG MIR162 which has not been approved for import by China. China has rejected 887,000 tons of U.S. corn since November 2013 because of the strain being detected in shipments. China’s corn reserves are indicated to be approximately 60 million tons and demand for feed has slowed because of outbreaks of bird flu in the country affecting the poultry sector and an economic slowdown, so the reason for the order is unclear. For the week ending March 13th the U.S. Department of Agriculture reports net sales of 69,476 tons of corn to China bringing the total purchases for the 2013/14 marketing year to slightly over 4 million tons of which all but 1.392 million tons have been shipped. China’s biosafety committee is scheduled to meet at the end of March to discuss the approval of Syngenta’s GMO strain, however if an agreement cannot be reached the next meeting will not be until June.
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