Bayer finally settled dispute with U.S. long-grain rice growers

Date:12-16-2011

Bayer CropScience is pleased to announce that the settlement agreements with U.S. long-grain rice growers in connection with the biotech rice litigation have taken effect. A sufficient number of now-verified registrations for the settlement program have been filed by growers to represent 85 percent of U.S. long-grain rice acreage, a threshold point established for the agreements to become binding.

As agreed to in the settlements, Bayer CropScience will pay up to $750 million to amicably resolve claims submitted by growers. The settlement program was available to all U.S. farmers who had been growing long-grain rice during the period of 2006 through 2010.

Bayer CropScience regards the inclusion of all long-grain rice growers in the settlement program, whether they had filed a lawsuit or not, to be crucial to demonstrating the company’s long-term commitment to rice, which remains an important crop for Bayer CropScience throughout the world.

Bayer already has established appropriate provisions for the settlement program.

Although Bayer CropScience believes it acted responsibly in the handling of its biotech rice, the company considered it important to resolve the litigation so that it can move forward focused on its fundamental mission of providing innovative solutions to modern agriculture.

Following the detection in 2006 of traces of biotech rice in long-grain rice harvested in several Southern U.S. states, Europe imposed restrictions on U.S. long-grain rice imports, even though the rice posed no food safety issues. Rice destined for Europe at the time accounted for less than 5 percent of U.S.-grown rice; markets adjusted and that rice quickly was diverted and sold in other markets.