Canada could benefit from the crisis, but their swine industry officials say they're exporting at their capacity now. The U.S. would be the next in line to see a significant increase in market demand if Europe is unable to meet Japan's pork import needs. U.S. corn farmers received some good news from its top customer this week. Japan appears to be moving closer towards approving corn co-mingled with StarLink varieties for use in feeding animals. Earlier feeding tests of StarLink corn to broilers showed no traces of either the StarLink protein or DNA traces in meat tissue.
Similar tests are under way in hogs, beef cattle and dairy herds in Japan.
Still, the Japanese government has not approved genetically enhanced StarLink corn for any purpose. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has said the crop is safe for livestock but hasn't yet granted approval for human consumption. The controversy has cost U.S. corn farmers about a 14 percent share of their top corn market already in this marketing year. Lynn Jensen, president of the National Corn Growers Association, said Agriculture Secretary Ann Veneman told him that progress on Japanese StarLink approval for feed corn is progressing. However, Veneman offered no timeline of when approval might be announced.