SYDNEY, Australia – The world’s first commercially produced biotech wheat, looming in North America, is likely to bypass some big Asian import markets but could create a battleground in others, producers and traders say.
Genetically modified wheat could be just a year away with life sciences giant Monsanto Co. well advanced in seeking regulatory approval in the United States and Canada.
However, Monsanto said it would not launch the product in Australia, which this year is the world’s second-largest wheat exporter after the United States. Australian wheat leads in most Asian markets against fierce U.S. competition.
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Asian markets also showed deep splits between developed nations such as Japan, which will shun GM wheat, and developing markets such as Indonesia that buy on price.
“Our focus for biotech wheat development is the North American market,” Monsanto Australia spokesperson Mark Buckingham said. “We don’t have any plans to grow it in Australia.”
A spokesperson for Australia’s monopoly wheat exporter AWB Ltd. also said the first commercial GM wheat crop in Australia is at least seven years away.
“Overwhelmingly our customers have indicated they want a product that is GM-free,” Peter McBride said.
Japanese millers would not import GM wheat, the Japan Food Agency said. The United States supplies about half of the six million tonnes of wheat a year imported by Japan, with Canada and Australia supplying the rest.
In contrast, Indonesia’s biggest flour mill, Bogasari Flour Mills, which buys more than half of its three million tonnes of imported wheat a year from Australia, said of GM wheat: Why not?
“In developing countries … the cost-benefit equation for GM products (should remain) favourable (to) offset any kind of opposition,” Bogasari senior vice-president Philip Purnama said.
