Had no exposure to Bt Brinjal opportunity: Monsanto India

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Had no exposure to Bt Brinjal opportunity: Monsanto India

In an interview with CNBC-TV18, Amitabh Jaipuria, MD of Monsanto India spoke about the company’s plans going forward.

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Excerpts from Midcap Radar on CNBC-TV18 Watch the full show » ALSO READ See latest News about Monsanto India See previous management interviews See what other Experts & Brokerages are saying about Monsanto India

At 16:00 pm Monsanto India's share was quoting at Rs 1,755.00, down Rs 8.3, or 0.47%. This was the second day the stock was down after the government placed an indefinite moratorium on commercial cultivation of Bt Brinjal developed by the company's US-based parent Monsanto.
 
Bt Brinjal is a genetically modified (GM) crop created by inserting a gene (Cry 1Ac) from the soil bacterium Bacillus thuringenisis (Bt) into brinjal. The gene makes the plant resistant to the typical pests that attack the fruit.
 
In an interview with CNBC-TV18, Amitabh Jaipuria, MD of Monsanto India spoke about the company's plans going forward.

Below is a verbatim transcript of the interview. Also watch the video.

Q: What is the extent of your involvement with Mahico? I believe you have a 26% share. What were the revenues that you were expecting if at all and even if they come was Mahico suppose to deliver a dividend or anything at some point where you could actually made any money out of it?

A: I would like to clarify that Monsanto India Limited, which is the listed company, has no exposure to the Bt Brinjal opportunity in the sense that Monsanto India Limited does not own a stake in Mahico. Monsanto, as a global organization, does have a 26% stake in Mahico and also as a joint venture with them for BT Cotton but Monsanto India Limited is basically in the business or corn and we are in the business of roundup herbicides.

Q: If any share should move up or down it should be your holding company - listed abroad?

A: Absolutely. Frankly, Bt Brinjal and what it could have generated from Mahico and its 26% by way of whatever dividend that Monsanto would have realized - must be seen in the context of Monsanto's global revenues. This really would be a not a material factor.

Q: But had it been successful and gone on to be commercially used, it would have been adopted in some fashion by the joint venture you have with Mahico?

A: No. This technology is a Mahico ownership and owned technology. They have developed and it would have depended on their decision to license it to some other players. If they had chosen to do that then that is a different issue.

Q: So how is business at Monsanto itself? We are seeing a lot of statements from the prime minister and top people in government that the next big idea in agriculture is very much wanted because of the constraints developing - how is business looking from hereon for a person who has a stake in agriculture and its productivity? Is the coming year looking way better because of expected investments?

A: Yes. As you know Monsanto globally is a 100% focused on agriculture. We invest over a billion dollar in agri research every year and we believe that some of our technologies clearly hold, some of the answers for the problems that face us today which is really of growing more food, of removing malnutrition, tackling some environment challenges as well as of removing poverty in the farm sector.

So our technologies are clearly relevant and we believe that they are the part of the solution and we are part of that choice that every farmer and every country should get.