Cargill rejects biotech corn

China's rejection of a variety of biotech corn last year has apparently prompted commodity giant Cargill, the top exporter of grain and oilseeds in the United States, to reject crops containing a newly developed genetically modified corn seed from Syngenta being sown by American farmers for the first time.

The US agricultural attache said in a report Beijing rejected in November a variety of biotech corn that had not been approved by the mainland authorities, forcing traders to reroute shipments to other countries.

"There has been no indication that this situation will be resolved quickly," said the attache report, seen as authoritative by the trading community.

Corn seeds containing Syngenta's Agrisure Duracade trait had been cleared by the US last year. It has import approval from buyers including Mexico, South Korea and Japan, but has not been approved by China or the European Union.

"For export contracts, we will not accept delivery of any commodity containing the Duracade trait," Cargill said, adding it "reserves the right to reject and/or require testing of deliveries" for the presence of Duracade.

China has rejected more than 600,000 tonnes of US corn and corn products containing MIR 162 which was also developed by Syngenta, the world's biggest crop chemicals company.