Title: Western Australian grain handler CBH not copying GM canola price guarantee
[ABC News 03 May 2012] -- Western Australian grain handler CBH Group says it currently has no plans to buy up genetically modified (GM) canola at guaranteed prices. The herbicide-resistant canola was introduced in WA in 2010 and now 10 per cent of WA's canola crop is GM. However, the price of GM canola is sliding - it is not purchased in European countries where buyers do not want GM products entering the feed chain. The situation has prompted the Australian Wheat Board to offer to buy up supplies of GM canola at guaranteed prices but CBH's Tom Puddy says the grain handler does not have plans to follow suit. "At this stage CBH is interested in buying non-GM canola for the European market, to qualify for that market, that's the best paying market, so our objective is to steer growers in that direction," he said. He says the crop is unpopular in Europe because buyers do not want GM products entering their food chain. "It's just the European market saying they want to use more biofuels but they don't want them to come from genetically modified crops because the by-product is very difficult for them to sell into the feed market," he said.