The French government will once again ban the planting of MON810 maize (corn), a genetically modified organism (GMO) made and sold by the Monsanto Co. (NYSE: MON). The government first banned MON810 in 2008, and has renewed the ban yearly since.
This is not a very big deal, as far as Monsanto is concerned. The company announced last month that beginning this year, it would no longer sell MON810.
That won’t make much difference is Monsanto is successful in getting approval for its MON810 seed in China. The company already claims 70 million acres of corn under cultivation in China — an emerging market for Monsanto — compared with 21 million acres in Europe. The European corn yields are higher too — 119 bushels/acre compared with just 84 bushels/acre in China, about equal to US production in the 1970s.
When Monsanto talks at all about Europe, it is talking about the emerging markets of Eastern Europe, not the developed markets of Western Europe. Corn yields in Eastern Europe are even lower than they are in China.
As far as Monsanto is concerned, France doesn’t matter.
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