Brazilian Soybean Growers to Sue Monsanto for Royalty Payments

Brazil’s soybean growers association plans to sue Monsanto Co. (MON), the world’s biggest seed company, for charging royalty payments two years after a patent expired, the head of the association known as Aprosoja said.

“We want Monsanto to give back to producers 1.2 billion reais ($606.7 million) of royalties charged incorrectly,” Glauber Silveira told reporters in Brasilia. Monsanto, based in St. Louis, also faces lawsuits from producers in the Brazilian states of Rio Grande do Sul and Mato Grosso.

Brazil’s Superior Court denied an appeal from Monsanto last week to extend the patent that expired in 2010 for a genetically modified soybean seed called RR1. The company yesterday said that it would suspend RR1 royalties until the case is resolved. Monsanto appealed and is seeking to have the case heard by Brazil’s Supreme Court.

“We believe we are in our right to charge the royalties,” Marcio Santos, strategy and products director at Monsanto, said in an interview in Brasilia today.

To contact the reporter on this story: Mario Sergio Lima in Brasilia Newsroom at mlima11@bloomberg.net

To contact the editor responsible for this story: James Attwood at jattwood3@bloomberg.net