America's GMO firms face China hurdle

Kansas City, Missouri

WITH US approval for Dow AgroSciences' package of chemicals and new genetically engineered crops now in hand, the Dow Chemical Co unit faces a major obstacle to a US$1 billion market opportunity: Chinese import barriers.

The Asian nation has become a major buyer of US corn and soyabeans in recent years, but has also shown mounting reluctance to accept some genetically modified crops grown by US farmers. China for the last year has been rejecting US corn shipments containing traces of a type of GMO corn developed by Syngenta AG.

Now Dow, which, like Syngenta has yet to rec…