www.checkbiotech.org ; www.raupp.info ; www.czu.cz

While any requirement to keep non-GM grain separate from GM grains
throughout the grain supply chain in Australia will impose costs on
Australia?s grains industry, it appears that the costs are modest and
manageable, according to a new research report by ABARE, December 2006.

The report, GM Grains in Australia: Identity Preservation, was released
today by Mr Phillip Glyde, Executive Director of ABARE.

Perceptions of consumer resistance to GM grains could create the need for
identity preservation arrangements aimed at ensuring the non-GM status of
some grains in mixed production systems of GM and non-GM crops.

Identity preservation is the process by which a crop is grown, handled,
delivered, and processed under conditions that assure the customer that the
crop has maintained its unique identity from seed producer to end user.

?If GM canola was introduced in Australia, the case studies undertaken by
ABARE suggest that additional costs to producers of identity preserved
non-GM canola would average 4?6 per cent of their farm gate canola price in
a typical year,? Mr Glyde said.

Mr Glyde pointed to the wide and successful experience in Australia of
identity preservation with conventional grains like durum wheat and malting
barley.

Mr Glyde also recognised that identity preservation with GM grains involved
some new challenges.

?ABARE is of the opinion that the costs of identity preservation with GM
crops are manageable,? he concluded.

In releasing the report, Mr Glyde acknowledged the support of the Grains
Research and Development Corporation and funds made available under the
National Biotechnology Strategy.

Report:
[www.abareconomics.com]

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