World Grain - November 2009 - 50

FEATURE: PROGRESS FOR BIOTECH WHEAT

leased a report on Dec. 26, 2008, measuring consumer perception in Seoul,
South Korea; New Delhi, India; Manila,
Philippines; and Tokyo, Japan. The survey found that:
 A majority of consumers in China,
Taiwan and India expect benefits from
biotechnology within the next five
years, but much smaller numbers in
South Korea and Japan, perennially one
of the world's top wheat importers and
the U.S. wheat industry's biggest customer, hold this view.
 Consumers largely accept plant
biotechnology if the technology contributes to a more sustainable way of producing foods.
Professor Ian Crute, recently appointed as the first chief scientist for
Britain's new Agriculture and Horticulture Development Board, an umbrella
body which includes the Home Grown
Cereals Authority, told World Grain
that it's his personal opinion (the organizations he represents have not set an
official view on the matter) that commercializing GM wheat would be a
positive development and that eventually it will happen.
But gaining acceptance in Europe will
continue to be a struggle, he said. "The
regulatory regime we have in Europe is

almost an industry on its own which is
almost designed to make it difficult to
get things registered," Crute said.
He said Europe is concerned about
how the development and commercialization of GM wheat could impact its
wheat industry.

"Things are starting to move in
the right direction, and hopefully we'll be able to sustain
them."
- Daren Coppock,
CEO, NAWG

"If they are going to promote larger
wheat plantings in the U.S. and Australia, Europe has a position in exports
which could grow weaker," Crute said.
"Their theory is there's going to be more
wheat in the marketplace."
Daren Coppock, chief executive officer of the Washington, D.C., U.S.based National Association of Wheat
Growers, told World Grain that one
essential step on the way to commercialization is to establish a reliable
segregation system to ensure that its
major export customers, such as Japan,

CLEAN CONTROL

receive the product they desire.
"They are a big market and they're a
cash customer that we've had a long relationship with," Coppock said of Japan.
"That's certainly not something that we
want to upset."
The paper noted that while a tolerance
of zero is not achievable in biological
systems, wheat supplies that meet commercial criteria as non-biotech will be
available to customers and will be incentivized by market mechanisms such
as premiums and discounts.
"With commercially achievable tolerances for low-level presence, the grain
handling industry will be able to meet
customer demands for non-biotech
wheat," it said.
Coppock said life science company
scientists have told him it will be at
least 10 years, assuming the efforts in
research and development continue to
gain momentum, before the commercialization of GM wheat occurs.
"That will give us a good decade to
work on the market acceptance issues,"
he said. "Things are starting to move in
the right direction, and hopefully we'll
be able to sustain them."
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World Grain - November 2009

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