Warsaw (Puls Biznesu) – Agricultural companies and food producers fight against the ban to trade with GMO seeds. Successfully.
Two distributors of the seeds of genetically modified maize: Monsanto and Pioneer were the first companies to fight against the ban to sell GMO seeds. The companies were refused to have the new plants registered in the national register. Centralny Osrodek Badania Odmian Roslin, the institute for plant research denied to register the seeds and was supported by the Ministry of Agriculture. Monsanto and Pioneer appealed against the decision.
“The court in Warsaw said, and it was a precedent, that the law on seed trading breaks EU directives in the part banning to register GMO plants”, Monika Jurkiewicz from Nowakowski i Wspolnicy lawyer’s office representing the two companies said.
The sentence is not final and binding yet. The Ministry of Agriculture may appeal.
“We don’t have the sentence nor the explanation yet. We don’t want to comment”, Bozena Nowicka from the Ministry of Agriculture said.
Agriculture companies and food producers are not going to let it go. Many people say unofficially that the law could be sued to the Constitutional Tribunal. The European Commission is also said to be pressing on the Polish government to change the law.
The possibility to use GMO plants is very important for farmers and the whole industry.
“GMO plants are often cheaper and better in quality than their unmodified peers. People using them may win with those who have no access to them”, Andrzej Gantner, the director of the Polish Federation of Food Producers commented.
He added, however, that the Polish farmers are not keen to use GMO.
(PLN 1 = EUR 0.255)