The Supreme Court of Mexico has unanimously denied four appeals against the ban on genetically modified (GM) corn and the herbicide glyphosate, according to local press reports.
Challenges presented by seed manufacturers including Bayer-Monsanto, Syngenta, PHI and Dow were all rejected by the court, AgriCensus wrote on 15 October.
The four companies had called for a suspension of a precautionary measure that prevented the use of GM corn in the country and had mounted numerous legal challenges over several years appealing the decision.
A presidential decree, which was published in the Official Gazette of the Federation on 31 December 2020, had banned the use of glyphosate, along with imports of GM corn, from January 2024, AgriCensus wrote.
Abel Rodriguez Montejo, an analyst with local consultancy firm Grupo Consultor de Mercados Agricolas (GCMA), told AgriCensus that the ban would have a negative impact on farmers’ profitability as glyphosate helped them to reduce costs,
“Once this product is banned, farmers will have less profitability and corn production could also be negatively impacted as the glyphosate does not have a substitute product,” he said, adding that the GM ban would be difficult to manage.
Mexico is largely self-sufficient in white corn but depends on imports of mostly GM yellow corn from the USA for livestock feed, according to AgriCensus.
