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From: Jim Diamond <[log in to unmask]>
Subject: A HILL OF BEANS DIFFERENCE
To: [log in to unmask]
A HILL OF BEANS
TOKYO, Aug 25 (Reuters) - Honda Trading Corp, a wholly owned unit of Japanese
automaker Honda Motor Co Ltd <7267.T>, said on Wednesday it will build a
plant in the U.S. state of Ohio for sorting and bagging soybeans free of
genetically modified organisms.
The company plans to spend 600 million yen for a plant that will start
operation around October with an annual handling capacity of 20,000 tonnes of
soybeans, a spokesman said.
Soybeans to be sorted and bagged at the plant will come from U.S. farmers
with contracts with Honda Trading for production of non-GM soybeans.
The soybeans will be shipped to Japan for sale to makers of "tofu"
soybean curd.
This year, Honda Trading has contracts with 118 U.S. farmers, who are
expected to supply 15,000 tonnes of non-GM soybeans to the company, the
spokesman said. The spokesman said Japanese government's decision to require
labels on genetically altered food is expected to stimulate demand for non-GM
crops from Japanese food processors. "We supply soybeans to tofu makers
currently. We are targetting customers such as makers of soybean paste and
fermented soybean products," he said. Japan has approved 22 varieties of six
GM crops for import and sale, including soybeans, corn, rapeseed, potatoes,
cotton and tomatoes. But the government earlier this month decided to impose
labelling requirements on these crops and food products made from them.
Japan imported 2.45 million tonnes of soybeans in the first half of 1999,
of which imports from the U.S. accounted for 2.11 tonnes or 86.2 percent.
COMMENT: The biggest Japanese trading company is Mitsubishi Corporation.
They will also need to arrange for sources of GM free products (they are the
importing agent for Kirin Beer, for instance -- see previous story).
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