StarLink Scare Causes Japan To Cut Corn Purchases in Half

YUMIKO ONO / WALL STREET JOURNAL 16nov00

TOKYO -- Japanese companies, the biggest customer of American corn farmers, said they are delaying purchasing corn from the U.S. because of lingering concerns over genetically altered StarLink corn.

Japan's trading houses, which are now signing deals for the first three months of next year, said they have completed purchases for about 30% of the U.S. corn they intend to buy for that period. That's about half the amount that companies have usually purchased by mid-November, estimated Hidenobu Kumada, a feed grain section manager at trading house Marubeni Corp. Japan buys about 16 million metric tons of corn a year, almost all of it from the U.S.

StarLink is the genetically modified type of corn that has triggered massive recalls of taco shells across the U.S. The problem spread to Japan last month, after a consumer group said it discovered StarLink corn in foodstuff from the U.S. Last week, the U.S. and Japanese governments agreed to have U.S. corn intended for human consumption inspected before it is shipped. The two sides are still discussing what measures to take in corn for animal feed.

Unlike Japan, the U.S. allows StarLink for use in animal feed. That makes it trickier for suppliers to make sure StarLink doesn't get into corn for Japanese animals.

Trading-house officials said they have temporarily purchased some corn from other countries, such as China. Meanwhile, they have been scrambling to negotiate with U.S. suppliers over such points as who should pay to inspect the corn before it is shipped.

Separately, a group of nearly 30 Japanese protesters demonstrated on Wednesday outside the U.S. Embassy in Tokyo, some wearing skull masks. The demonstrators, mostly members of the consumer group that initially called attention to StarLink in Japan, said stricter measures were needed to completely shut out any more traces of the gene-altered corn.