World’s First GMO Wheat Gets ‘More Real’ After US Approval

An Argentine crop developer that is the first to receive US approval for genetically modified wheat said it will take years to bring the technology to market.

Still, Bioceres Crop Solutions SA Chief Executive Officer Federico Trucco said he hopes the authorization will help break down global barriers.

“This is becoming more and more real every day,” Trucco said in an interview as the company posts quarterly earnings, which saw a boost from sales of the drought-tolerant wheat variety known as HB4. “There’s a more immediate effect in terms of increasing the level of credibility. It’s a more demanding market saying: ‘We want the technology.’”

Bioceres is on a quest to overcome deep-seated reticence about GMO wheat. Farmers have for decades grown genetically modified soybeans and corn, mostly used for livestock feed or biofuels. But direct consumption of crops by humans has stoked fierce opposition from consumer, farmer and environmental groups. Some companies, including Monsanto Co., before its merger with Bayer AG, reversed course on it.

Now, a green light in the US, a top-five exporter, means Bioceres has planting approval outside of South America. Australia, another major global supplier, also is carrying out field trials.

Adapting genetics and scaling up planting to have enough seeds to sell in the US will take two to three years, Trucco said. That will give Bioceres time to work on convincing importers, particularly Asian buyers of US wheat like Japan and South Korea, he said. HB4 remains banned in swaths of Asia, North Africa and the Middle East.

In Argentina, about 20 flour mills are buying up HB4 as Bioceres works with so-called seed multipliers to expand outside of its identity-preserved acreage. Farmers this season are growing hundreds of thousands of hectares of HB4 in a country with a total area of about 6 million hectares (14.8 million acres). Trucco said he hopes more cargoes eventually will get shipped to major client Brazil.

“I’m not ready to scream ‘goal’ in anyone’s face,” Trucco said. “One thing is what the regulators say, and another thing is consumer preference. We have come a significant distance.”

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Tags: genetically modified soybeans, genetically modified corn, Bioceres Crop Solutions SA, US, crop, Argentina, GMO wheat, genetically modified wheat