China has officially approved imports of a genetically modified (GM) Bayer CropScience Ltd soybean variety after seven years of review, Bayer said on Friday, raising expectations that approval notices could come soon for other biotech crops.
Bayer received an import certificate from China, the world’s top soybean importer, for its LL55 Liberty Link variety and plans a full commercial US launch of the seed next year.
Beijing has been taking longer than in the past to approve new GM crops amid growing consumer sentiment against GM food in China and concerns among some government officials about excessive dependence on US food supplies.
The delay has cast doubt over the future of seed companies’ heavy investments in research of GM seeds, which can take up to 10 years and US$150 million to develop.
Approval of LL55 soybean imports “is great news for growers,” Bayer’s director of US soybean operations Diego Angelo said in a telephone interview.
“It’s great news for Bayer,” he said.
China’s acceptance comes too late for US farmers who have already ordered their soybean seeds for next year.
However, growers in southern US states, where LL55 is to be planted, typically wait longer to select their varieties than in the Midwest, Angelo said.
Farmers would probably plant LL55 soybeans on 80,900 hectares to 121,400 hectares in the southern US next year, he added. This year, US farmers planted 34.08 million hectares of soy.
US Secretary of agriculture Tom Vilsack on Wednesday said China had approved imports of GM soybeans developed by Bayer and DuPont Pioneer and shipments of Agrisure Viptera corn, developed by Swiss-based Syngenta AG. However, the companies had not received official notifications.
On Friday, Syngenta and DuPont said they still had not received approval notices.
China is a key market for the US$12 billion US agricultural seeds business, and accounted for nearly 60 percent of US soybean exports and 12 percent of corn exports two years ago.
Nearly 90 percent of corn in the US is genetically engineered, according to the US Department of Agriculture, as farmers embrace technology that helps kill weeds and fight pests.
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