Major international seed companies in India formed an alliance on Friday (August 26), seeking the support of their peers after a flurry of regulatory steps in recent months by India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi's government.
Executives from companies including the local businesses of Monsanto, Bayer, Dow, Dupont Pioneer and Syngenta announced the alliance in a crowded Press Club of India conference room.
The newly-formed Federation of Seed Industry of India (FSII) says its goal is to address difficulties in the industry.
Reuters reported earlier this week that Monsanto had withdrawn an application to sell its next-generation genetically modified (GM) cotton seeds in India on concerns over the security of its intellectual property.
India is Monsanto's biggest market outside the Americas. Monsanto objected to a government proposal that would force it to share its technology with local seed companies. It has also taken the government to court over a cut in the royalty it gets from seed companies for licensing use of its patented technology.
The New Delhi press conference was a show of solidarity with Monsanto, which has operated in India for decades but is now being investigated by the anti-trust regulator on whether it misused its near-monopoly on GM cotton seeds to jack up prices.
‘Our new association is driven by the fundamental value of respecting research and intellectual properties of each other,’ M. Ramasami, a founding FSII member, read out from a statement.
‘The association believes that no single company has all the solutions and hence collaborations, joint ventures, licensing arrangements and similar approaches are necessary among the members of the industry.’
Monsanto, a takeover target of Germany's Bayer, has said it contemplated quitting India because of heightened regulation.
