As the Syngenta corn litigation movement continues, experts state that an increasing number of grain elevators have accepted the company’s GMO corn that was banned by China. Recently, it was reported that a number of American grain elevators, mills, and feedlots had not only bought the GMO corn, but that sales for the genetically modified product have doubled since July.

Experts state that the growing number of sales indicate that while internal buyers may not be so hot for theSyngenta corn, domestic buyers have accepted and embraced the product. According to Syngenta, the number of agriculture locations accepting the corn has increased from 672 to 1,652 in the past seven months.

It is interesting to note that this announcement comes right before planting season for farmers, which is most likely a marketing tactic by Syngenta to convince more domestic farmers to buy the company’s AG’s Agrisure Duracade corn seed, after assuring the farmers that they will have a marketplace for their harvests.

A Syngenta spokesman declined to estimate how many acres are predicted to have the Duracade corn planted, because the company is still in the process of accepting orders. Despite its popularity with domestic farmers, two of the world’s biggest commodity traders, Cardill Inc. and Archer Daniels Midland Co., have refused to accept the Duracade corn because it has not been approved by the big players of the international corn market, like China.

In fact, Cardill and ADM actually sued Syngenta last year after China had rejected tons of U.S. Crops containing another genetically modified corn product from Syngenta, the infamous Viptera corn.

The companies had bought the corn from Syngenta under the belief that China and other countries had approved the corn for their import markets. While China has recently changed its mind on the Viptera MIR162 corn last year, the company still had allegedly advertised the corn to already be approved for international sales before this approval had actually occured.

Farmers and agriculture companies in the United States are suing Syngenta for selling them the GMO corn that was yet to be approved by China. This has caused severe damage to the American corn market, which has cost billions in losses so far with no end in sight.

Overview of Syngenta Corn Allegations

Both the Duracade and Viptera GMO strains were created with the purpose of having internal defenses against corn parasites, like worms and other corn pests. Syngenta began selling the Viptera corn in 2011 when it was approved in Brazil and Argentina, but reached an unexpected speed bump with China’s initial rejection. During the time, Chinese authorities explained that they were trying to encourage their citizens to follow a more healthier lifestyle and eat a more organic diet.

The Duracade corn strain was essentially put through the same approval process, though China has only recently accepted the Viptera corn strand. Syngenta maintains that the lawsuits from Cardill and ADM are baseless.

In order to keep Duracade corn out of the unapproved foreign markets, Syngenta hired grain merchant Gavilon, owned by Marubeni Corp., to develop a business network for these feedlots, elevators, mills, and ethanol plants. The company did this so that the farmers’ harvests would be accepted for use in the United States.

Syngenta has also restricted Duracade corn from being planted in certain geographic areas which typically produce domestic crops. However, the risk of accidentally spreading the crop to international markets could place the company in further jeopardy, hence the need for these limitations.

In the meantime, farmers and agricultural companies will be recovering for years due to the faulty marketing of Syngenta. There are currently several Syngenta lawsuits filed against the company, alleging that the company’s decision to sell the corn seed before China Viptera approval had caused them contentious financial damage.