Argentina awaits Brazil’s approval to start supplying transgenic wheat

According to the newspaper “La Nacion”, the approval of a variety of transgenic wheat in Argentina will depend on getting the green light from Brazil. The information was released citing an Argentine government source. “It is approved [in Argentina], but it depends on negotiations with Brazil,” said the source. “It was conditionally approved,” added the source.

Drought-tolerant wheat called HB4 was developed by the company Bioceres-Indear, which already has drought-resistant soy seed. This last product was approved in 2015 and is awaiting approval for sale in China.

According to the company, drought-tolerant wheat provides an increase in productivity close to 20% under average production conditions and 40% or more in situations such as extreme droughts.

The transgenic wheat variety already has licenses from the Argentine Health and Food-Safety Agency (SENASA) and from the National Agricultural Biotechnology Consultative Commission (CONABIA). But permission from the Ministry of Agriculture’s market area, which came out on the 7^th of October, was missing.

Argentina serves between 7% and 8% of the global wheat market and Brazil is the country’s largest buyer, buying up to 70% of the product during some harvests.

Source: Valor Econômico

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