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Earlier in 2014 we reported how China had rejected over 1.45 million tons of U.S. corn because it was found to contain a variety of genetically modified corn that is not approved in China. Much of that corn export product went to Brazil instead, as the U.S. continues to lose exports abroad due to its biotech policies of not labeling GMOs.
Now, the U.S. is losing another huge export crop from America: hay. China is taking a tough stance on GMO alfalfa, which means the United States loses yet another major export agricultural product to China in hay, a livestock feed.
Here in the U.S., Tropical Traditions has started testing all products that are in danger of being contaminated with the presence of GMOs or glyphosate, prior to offering them to their customers. They are believed to be the first ones in the U.S. to begin testing products, even USDA organic products, for GMO contamination. Apparently, China on the global scene is starting to do the same thing with their imports.
China’s hard line on biotech burns US hay
Excerpts:
China’s tough new stance on imports of genetically modified crops is shaking up a little-noticed U.S. industry: hay.
Over the summer China began testing imports to detect the presence of hay made from a biotech alfalfa that Beijing hasn’t approved. Consequently, shipments to China have plunged since midsummer and some deliveries have been rejected.
China’s actions are a sharp blow for shippers of hay, which is produced from alfalfa and other grassy plants and is the fourth-largest U.S. crop by acreage, and valued at US$20 billion a year. U.S. hay prices also have fallen about 12 per cent, in part because the reduced Chinese demand boosted domestic supplies.
With Chinese dairy producers eager to feed high-protein U.S. alfalfa to cows, U.S. exports of alfalfa hay to China had jumped more than eightfold from 2009 to 2013, reaching nearly 785,000 tons, and accounted for a quarter of such exports in the first 10 months of this year. But as exporters scrambled to ensure their cargoes didn’t contain the genetically modified alfalfa, which was developed by Monsanto Co., shipments tumbled 22 per cent by weight from August to October from a year earlier, according to U.S. Agriculture Department data.
Mountain Sunrise Feed Co., a small hay exporter in Enterprise, Utah, had been shipping half of its product-1,000 tons a month-to China. It stopped shipments after several of its cargoes were refused.
“It’s too big a gamble,” said owner Nick Huntsman.
The lost Chinese business forced him to lay off five employees, and the company now is using just 50 per cent of its production capacity due in part to reduced exports.
Read the Full Story here.