SAO PAULO (Reuters) – Germany’s Bayer forecasts that some 30% of Brazil’s soybean area will be sowed with its genetically modified biotech seed Intacta2 Xtend in the 2024/25 season, doubling the share from the previous crop, a top executive said this week. The exact share Intacta2 Xtend will reach should be clear only in […]
SAO PAULO (Reuters) – Germany’s Bayer forecasts that some 30% of Brazil’s soybean area will be sowed with its genetically modified biotech seed Intacta2 Xtend in the 2024/25 season, doubling the share from the previous crop, a top executive said this week.
The exact share Intacta2 Xtend will reach should be clear only in some two or three weeks after expected rains allow a broad planting in Brazil’s soy fields, Bayer ’s head of regulatory science for Latin America Geraldo Berger told Reuters in an interview on Monday.
WHY IT’S IMPORTANT
Brazil, the world’s largest soy producer and exporter, is Bayer ’s second largest market behind only the United States.
CONTEXT
Bayer ’s Intacta2 Xtend seed is designed to tolerate herbicides, including glyphosate and dicamba, and protects the plant against caterpillars.
Last year, Bayer had estimated that between 10% to 15% of Brazil’s soybean area would be sowed with Intacta2 Xtend – the third generation of the genetically modified soybean – in the 2023/24 season.
KEY QUOTES
Bob Reiter, head of research and development for Bayer ’s crop science division, said the firm plans to launch a fourth generation of the product in the next 10 years.
“We always have to stay ahead of insect pressure and insect resistance risk and also improve the breadth of insects that we can try to control with biotechnology,” he said.
(Reporting by Roberto Samora; Writing by Andre Romani Pinto; Editing by Sandra Maler)
