Syngenta received a reminder over the controversy surrounding its high-tech corn seed even as the group unveiled a 21% jump in sales, beating market expectations and sending its shares up 4%.

Market sources said that Syngenta's high-tech Viptera brand of genetically modified corn, which has not been approved by Beijing, had been barred from China's 900,000-tonne purchase of the grain from the US, which was confirmed by the US Department of Agriculture on Thursday.

According to Australia & New Zealand Bank, the non-Viptera specification has raised doubts over the shipment, which may help explain a weak performance by corn futures on Thursday despite confirmation of the order.

On Tuesday, rumours of the purchase had sent futures up the exchange maximum.

'Taking a punt?'

"The brand is widely used in the US and as such it is difficult/nay impossible to guarantee that a cargo is 100% non-[Viptera]," the bank said.

This meant that "a lot of traders were unwilling to quote the exact specification and indeed many believe there is some risk around delivery".

Indeed, it could be that "the lucky seller is taking a punt that China ends up changing their mind on the whole [biotech] issue", ANZ added, noting that the corn was not due for delivery until the April-to-June quarter next year.

Syngenta is hoping its Viptera brand will be approved "by the end of the first quarter of 2012", a company spokesman told Agrimoney.com.

'Confidence in Viptera high'

The comments come amid a battle by Syngenta to protect Viptera seed from discrimination by merchants, such as Bunge and Cargill, which have curbed dealings in the biotech corn variety for fear of contaminating their logistics chain, and denying them access to the Chinese market.

Syngenta was two weeks ago denied a preliminary injunction seeking to force Bunge to buy Viptera corn from growers, with a federal judge terming Bunge's ban "a legitimate and reasonable business decision".

The Syngenta spokesman on Friday said that "grower confidence in Viptera remains high" and that it foresaw a "lot of continued growth" in the product.

The Viptera brand was set to account for 25-30% of Syngenta's US corn seed sales next year, and 25% in Brazil.

Syngenta, which is continuing its legal battle against Bunge, on Friday unveiled sales of $2.66bn for the July-to-September quarter, led by a 23% jump in sales of herbicides and pesticides.