The objective of this work was to determine the comparative factors of the production costs between conventional and transgenic soybean, with a view to informing strategies for decision making among agribusiness actors, analyzing the Paraná state (Brazil) reality. The argument that the introduction of the transgenic soybean equals lower costs, proved to be incorrect. This study demonstrated that despite the practicality in the technology of the transgenic soybean, there are also arguments supported by data that raise questions regarding the use of this technology, in particular regarding the economic and the technical aspects. Even with the significant reduction in costs due to the lower use of herbicides with the transgenic soybean, this fact is minimized by the higher price charged for the transgenic variety of seed, by the high technological tax used and by the lower productivity offered by the varieties of transgenic soybean on the market compared to conventional soybean varieties.
Transgenic soybean; Market strategies; Comparative production costs
