BASF Says Plans Trials of GM Potatoes in the UK
Date: 24-Aug-06
Country: GERMANY
The potatoes have been genetically modified to make them resistant to late blight, a fungal disease.
A spokesman said that the company had identified a gene from wild potatoes in Central America for use against late blight, a disease that affected 5-10 percent of the British potato crop despite the use of fungicides.
Genetically modified foods have run into strong resistance in the European Union, where many consumers view them as "Frankenstein" foods. The biotech industry insists its products are perfectly safe and no different from conventional foods.
On Tuesday, the EU said it was poised to prevent unauthorised biotech rice detected in the United States from entering its food chain.
At present no genetically modified rice is authorised for import or sale within the 25-country European Union, although several biotech maize and rapeseed varieties have secured EU approval.
No potato modified for resistance to late blight has yet been approved.
BASF said that the estimated damage due to the disease worldwide was 2 billion pounds (US$3.78 billion).
It said that it had applied to the regulators to conduct two trials, in Derbyshire and Cambridgeshire. Similar trials have already been carried out in Sweden, Germany and the Netherlands.
If BASF gets approval, planting will take place in spring 2007 and harvesting in autumn. the trials will be repeated over the four following years.
"The trial site will be monitored throughout the growing season, as well as over the course of the following years," it said in the statement.
"After the trial the field will be monitored until no potato plants are detected in the ground for two subsequent years."
The company said the process of selecting and developing a final variety would take 8-10 years.
BASF has submitted for regulatory approval a potato that is rich in a type of starch used in the paper industry, and expects the approval later this year.