Traders bought soyabean contracts thinking dryness in the northern plains would inhibit germination in newly-planted seeds.
The feedgrain supply is more than adequate, with few prospects for long-term food price inflation, Mr Starleaf said. At the Chicago Board of Trade yesterday, traders sent soyabean prices sharply lower as flood-related panic buying ebbed.
Mr Bek-Nielsen says this was a blatant campaign to try to stop palm oil's invasion of US soyabean markets.
The crop's value is around Dollars 27bn annually. The controversial patent covers all forms of genetically engineered soyabean plants and seeds, irrespective of the genes used or the transformation technology employed.
Meanwhile, large European demand for soyabean has led the USDA to revise both the 1991-92 and the 1992-93 projections, from 680m bushels to 690m and 675m to 700m respectively.
The US Commodity Futures Trading Commission demanded the operation as they claimed Ferruzzi had been trying to corner the market in soyabean futures.