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

The growing commercialization and continued innovation of genetically
modified crops (GMO) could have significant benefits for the food industry
in Eastern Europe over the coming decade, says a leading Biotech expert,
March 2007 by Neil Merrett.

In a conversation with CEE-Foodindustry.com, Europabio's Simon Barber
explained that the increasing applications of GMOs like drought resistant
crops will continue to change European perceptions on their use.

Europe currently remains well behind countries like the US, Canada and
Brazil in terms of GMO usage as it struggles with divided opinion on their
use.

Despite countries like Slovakia and the Czech Republic using insect
resistant maize for feed purposes, GMO use is limited particularly in the
developing markets of Central and Eastern Europe due to moral and health
concerns.

Barber feels however that the developments of new bio-technologies like
crops more resistant to drought will encourage both consumers and the food
industry to accept the technology in the region.

"Along with increased nutritional outputs like healthier rapeseed oils,
beneficial input implications like crops with better water-use efficiency
will really benefit food production in the region," he said.

"Though it is impossible to be exactly sure, within the next ten years I
would expect the industry to become fairly advanced in what can be done."

According to the International Service for the Acquisition of Agri-biotech
Applications (ISAAA) drought resistance is one area in particular, which is
seen as a key development for the growth of GMO crops.

It predicts that the genes which expected to be available for commercial use
by around 2011 will significantly reduce the affects of drought on grain
production.

Drought has proved a major problem for grain processors particularly in
Central and Eastern Europe where adverse conditions throughout both the
summer and winter last year took their toll on soil quality.

As a result the International Grains Council (IGC) found grain production
last year was down by 51m tones from 2005 due to poor harvests in countries
like Poland and Ukraine.

The decline in grain stocks resulted in increasing prices for processors as
demand in the region tightened.

Groups like US biotech giant Monsanto, which has testing already underway on
water efficient crops, are hoping they can it can capitalise on demand for
products resistant to climatic uncertainty.

Monsanto revealed earlier this year that trials of its drought tolerant corn
and water efficient soy bean were found to produce higher yields of crop
with less wilting.

The company's figures for 2006 found that yields of its drought resistant
corn under drought stress in certain cases showed a 23.2 per cent increase
over controlled non-GM corn production.

Besides GMOs applications in protecting the supply chain of raw materials,
the increasing focus on nutritional benefits in food products to meet
growing demand for wellness products is also seen as an important
development.

This month alone, US research into food stuffs as simple as tomatoes and
rice have found methods to amplify the nutritional benefits of a product.

University of Florida researchers have suggested that transgenic engineering
of tomatoes has allowed them to increase the content of folates - which have
been linked to reducing infant spina bifida by around 25 times.

The US department of agriculture has also announced its desire to develop
nutritional benefits in food by approving the cultivation of GM rice
engineered to produce the proteins lactiva and lysomin.

Test into the two proteins found naturally in breast milk suggest that they
can have significant potential on diarrhoea.

While the US continues to lead the way in both GMO research and yields,
Barber was confident that producers in Eastern Europe would become
increasingly receptive to the potential benefits of the products.

Not all are as keen to embrace GMO use however, with some European states
still coy on adopting GMO use into its food chain.

There are currently just six countries in the European Union currently
employing insect resistant form of genetically modified agriculture out of a
total of 25 member states.

Though some EU nations like France and Spain have expressed desire to
increase their yields, other including Hungary remain staunchly opposed to
any form of GMO use.

Hungary has banned the use of any GMO in its food chain, including a strain
of insect resistance maize approved by the EU for feed use.

With the EU upholding Hungary's right to continue to outlaw GMO use in the
country, objection in the bloc could hold out for some time yet.

Hungary's reservations have also been backed by environmental groups like
Greenpeace and Friends of the Earth, who have expressed concern at the
unknown long term health affects of GMOs, which it fears could pose a risk
to consumer health.

www.checkbiotech.org