Syngenta ordered to pay $218m in damages over biotech corn strain

A jury has ordered Swiss seed company Syngenta to pay $217.7m in compensatory damages to Kansas farmers over its decision to sell a biotech corn strain unapproved by China.

China blocked corn imports from the US starting in late 2013 after inspectors detected traces of Agrisure Viptera, a Syngenta corn variety genetically engineered to combat cutworms.

Approved for planting in the US, the strain had not yet received a green light from Beijing.

Sales of corn to China plummeted after the move, sparking lawsuits against Swiss-based Syngenta from US farmers who claimed they suffered a fall in grain prices and international grain traders such as Archer Daniels Midland and Cargill that were forced to redirect cargoes to other ports.

Friday’s jury award marked the first legal damages against Syngenta. If upcoming trials have similar outcomes, Syngenta could face aggregate penalties of $5bn-$7.5bn, said Lewis Remele, a lawyer representing plaintiffs in a parallel case in Minnesota.

“This is only the beginning. We look forward to pursuing justice for thousands more corn farmers in the months ahead,” lawyers for the Kansas corn farmers said in a statement.

Syngenta said in a statement:

We are disappointed with today’s verdict because it will only serve to deny American farmers access to future technologies even when they are fully approved in the U.S. The case is without merit and we will move forward with an appeal and continue to defend the rights of American farmers to access safe and effective U.S.- approved technologies.

The legal battle is unfolding as Swiss-based Syngenta in the process of being acquired by ChemChina for $44bn in China’s largest cross-border buyout to date.