The GMO oilseed saga comes to a close

More than a year after it first began prompting heated arguments in cabinet and at least one altercation in a committee of the national assembly that turned physical, the saga of consignments of oilseeds stuck at the Karachi Port is finally over. 

For now. 

A recent decision of the Sindh High Court (SHC) has ordered that the customs department allow the soybean seeds stuck at the port to be released. The consignments that have been stuck at the port for the past year are worth over $400 million. But what exactly has happened over the course of the past year and what has changed now? 

Fearmongering 

It all started with a technicality — but a technicality that was being ignored for a few years. On October 20, last year, two shipments were stopped at Port Qasim in Karachi. The shipments contained GMO oilseeds worth some $100 million on board. And despite the very vocal protestations of the importers that had paid for the consignments, they stayed stuck at the port pending a single certification from the ministry of climate change.

In the months that followed, more vessels joined the two stuck at Karachi and the value of the oilseeds piling up at the port grew over $300 million. The most important thing to understand is one term — oilseeds.  When most people hear the term oilseed, they think it is a seed that is to be sown in the ground and harvested for the production of edible oil. Oilseeds is actually a term for the seeds or ‘fruit’ that certain crops produce that are then pressed to get edible oil. So, for example, olives are an oilseed and so are the fruits produced by palm plants and soybeans since all of these are pressed and used to extract oil. Another example of an oilseed is cotton, the seeds from which are pressed and the oil extracted from them.

Pakistan is heavily dependent on these oilseeds for its edible oil. According to a report of the central bank, Pakistan’s palm and soybean-related imports stood at US$ 4 billion in FY21, rising by 47% year-on-year, compared to compound average growth of 12.3% in the last 20 years. And in addition to edible oil, these seeds fulfil another crucial purpose: providing feed for livestock including for chickens. In the three decades since 1990, the consumption of oilseed meals as feed for livestock has tripled in the country – a big reason for which is the growth of the poultry industry.

This is particularly true in the case of the soybean. Since it is rich in nutrition, its meals offer better digestibility, quality mix of amino acids and have the highest protein content (around 44-50%) compared to all other oilseed meals. These qualities make it a better feed ingredient for chicken in comparison to cottonseed – which was the traditional oilseed used in Pakistan. According to the Pakistan Poultry Association (PPA) estimates for 2015-16, approximately 9.5 million tonnes of poultry feed was produced, nearly a third of which was oilseed meals. This means around 2 – 2.8 million tonnes of oilseed meals were used in Pakistan’s poultry industry. As demand for poultry increases, the number of chickens raised also goes up and so does demand for soy seeds as feed.

As a result, the poultry industry was suddenly in crisis as well. Now, it is worth pointing out here why the shipments of GMO oilseeds were stopped. Pakistan is party to the Cartagena Protocol on Biosafety to the Convention on Biological Diversity, signed in 2001 and rectified in 2009. The Cartagena Protocol is an international treaty governing the movements of living modified organisms (LMOs) resulting from modern biotechnology from one country to another.

Its purpose is simple. One of the observations scientists had after genetically modifying different crops was that when certain modified plant varieties are introduced to new environments, the results can be disastrous for the local ecology. As a result, to make sure there is no unchecked introduction of GMOs to new environments, the Cartagena Protocol monitors this. And as part of the Pakistan Biosafety Rules of 2005, the ministry of climate change needs to give approval to any new GMO shipments coming into the country.

Jurisdictional hell

This was a broad strokes summary of the past year. The legal realities of these consignments were stuck in bureaucratic hell. You see the controversy began when Department of Plant Protection, halted biosecurity clearance to US soybean cargo anchored at the Karachi port in October 2022 on the tip off of the customs intelligence, Karachi that the citing cargo is GMO and imported misdeclaring as non-GMO and is devoid of license of Environmental Protection Agency and No Objection Certificate (NOC) of Ministry of Climate Change and pestered the DPP to release the cargo having been arrived in violation of existing Pakistan Biosafety and Plant Quarantine Regulations that bans the import of GMO products in Pakistan. Notably, this move attracted media attention and became a contentious issue within the country.

Despite strong opposition from the former Federal National Food Security Minister, Tariq Bashir Cheema, importers, known for their significant influence, managed to get entry to nine out of eleven soybean vessels by portraying them as non-GMO that were imported in the previous year. Furthermore, one soybean consignment was re-exported by the DPP, leaving only one vessel that was declared as GMO by the importers stranded at the port for approximately a year.

The resolution of this case came through a single bench court order, as it appeared that the Ministry of Climate Change, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), the Ministry of National Food Security and the Department of Plant Protection could not defend their decision to halt the consignments, as per the existing rules.

The Ministry of National Food Security and Research (MoNFS&R) has now ordered release of the last remaining consignment of soybeans declared as genetically modified organisms (GMOs) by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) following the Sindh High Court order. This development brings an end to a year-long dispute between the government and influential importers who had sought the release of these GMO oilseeds without fulfilling national biosafety regulations, valued at over $400 million.

Influence at play? 

You’d think that would be the end of it, right? The release of the consignments has raised allegations of influence peddling. A so called friend being ex-colleague of the caretaker Federal Minister of Food Security, who, allegedly, is also consultant to All Pakistan Solvent Extractor’s Association (APSEA) and pursuing Food and Climate Change Ministries and EPA for getting permission of import of GMO and Living Modified Organisms (LMOs) products in Pakistan since long on behalf of the association, has been accused of playing a crucial role in securing the release of the stuck GMO consignment without conforming existing biosafety rules, which are worth billions of rupees. He also has privileges to have acquaintances with the principal secretary of the caretaker prime minister, the sources inside the ministry revealed. These allegations remain unverified as the relevant individuals could not be contacted for comment.

The saga began in October last year when the Customs intelligence department gave lead to the Department of Plant Protection regarding arrival of a GMO soybean vessel bereft of the necessary license from the EPA and Climate Change Ministry and forbade the DPP from clearance of that soybean cargo until verification of GMO, a move that had not been practiced in the past by the DPP owing to the reasons that the importers always declared import of non-GMO oilseeds to the DPP and the DPP is not empowered to test goods for GMO under existing plant quarantine regulations. The situation escalated to a point where the previous federal cabinet had to intervene and make decisions. While the federal cabinet allowed the re-export of two GMO consignments, the importers of one GMO cargo opted to re-export consignment to a third country with forgiving import conditions regarding GMO products while the importers of second cargo instead of re-export filed petition before the Sindh High court of Karachi for release of GMO cargo in Pakistan.

Most of the soybeans imported into Pakistan are GMO and released in the country due to obsolete biosafety regulations and lack of the Environmental Protection Agency infrastructure at ports, which gave free opportunities to the importers to delude the DPP and continued import of GMO in Pakistan misdeclaring the import as non-GMO oilseeds. The Pakistan Biosafety Rules of 2005 require the mandatory registration of GMOs and LMOs with the National Biosafety Council and license from the EPA for import of GMO products in Pakistan. However, the relevant department within the Ministry of Climate Change has been unable to carry out its duties related to the certification, inspection, and issuance of license for GMO products and to foil release of GMO products in Pakistan since Pakistan’s signing of the international Cartagena protocol and promulgation of biosafety rules.

The legal battle 

 The SHC’s decision followed an extended legal battle that spanned over ten months. The dispute began with the detention and deportation and re-export order of one vessel carrying GMO soybeans at Karachi port by the Department of Plant Protection, which was part of a larger consignment collectively worth over $ 400 million.

While nine of the eleven oilseed consignments were eventually released because the importers disported them as non-GMO to the DPP and the EPA and Ministry of Climate Change did not inspect and test them for verification of GMO, one was re-exported to Bangladesh by the DPP under instruction of the former Federal Cabinet. The last consignment, initially declared to contain GMO soybeans, remained stranded at the port and is being released on the strict direction of caretaker Federal Minister of Food Security, which would ultimately pave way for release of GMO products in Pakistan without undergoing necessary risk analysis evaluations and certification of the EPA and climate change ministry.

The Ministry of National Food Security during the previous Government directed DPP to challenge the import consignments and re-export GMO oilseeds consignments from Pakistan, claiming they contained GMO soybeans, a product prohibited in Pakistan in line with biosafety regulations. The importers, in response, sought legal recourse through the Sindh High Court, which eventually ruled in their favor.

However, the Ministry of National Food Security decided to escalate the case to a superior court and enjoined the DPP to file appeal before the double bench of Sindh high court and supreme court of Pakistan and leave no stone unturned to stop its release in Pakistan on technical grounds fearing potential threats to public health, environment and agriculture in addition to financial penalties and other damages if the consignments were released following the court’s verdict.

In the recent court case, Mr. Justice Mahmood A. Khan presided, with Iffco Pakistan Ltd. and others as plaintiffs and the Federation of Pakistan and others as defendants. The plaintiffs argued that the defendants lacked the authority to restrict imports on environmental grounds.

Justice Mahmood A. Khan dismissed this argument, emphasizing that both federal and provincial laws coexisted within their respective domains. The court then delved into the central issue, highlighting the importance of clarity in understanding the matter.

After a thorough examination, the court found insufficient evidence to classify the imported product as a GMO or subject it to any restrictions. This allowed the plaintiffs to continue importing the soybeans for oil extraction and feed production purposes, with the defendants retaining the right to further investigate the matter within the framework of the law.

The legal battle has finally concluded, with the last consignments of GMO soybeans released, providing some resolution to a protracted and contentious issue that has persisted for over a year.