Monsanto Co. has threatened to pull out of India if the government goes forward with a plan to cut royalty fees on Bt cotton seeds by 70 percent, says Reuters. Monsanto’s India branch, Mahyco Monsanto Biotech (MMB), charges local seed companies a royalty fee to sell the patented plant, which is the only GMO allowed in India. Bt cotton is genetically modified to produce the soil bacterium, Bacillus thuringiensis, which wards off bollworm.
A government commission was organized last year after complaints that MMB was charging seed companies too much in royalties. The national farm ministry has not said whether it will approve the commission’s recommendation, which included a retail price decrease on the seeds to 800 rupees from 830-1,100 rupees for 400 grams (prices vary by region). India’s anti-trust regulator, the Competition Commission, says it also will be investigating whether MMB monopolizes the market, seeing as it and its partner seed companies together control 90 percent of the cotton seed sold in the country.
If the fee cut and other restrictions move forward, Monsanto says it will be reluctant to bring new technology to India. Shilpa Divekar Nirula, Monsanto’s chief executive for the India region, called the proposed cuts “arbitrary and innovation-stifling.”