Pressure grows between industry trade associations (representing grain traders, meat processors and the feed industry) and the European Commission to authorise soybeans containing RR2Y. RR2Y represents the tip of the iceberg in terms of new traits. Within the next coming years more than 20 new traits are expected to enter the market in the US, Brazil and Argentina for soybeans alone. With Europe highly dependent on imports of soybeans from these locations the outlook looks murky for the European meat industry which has suffered devastating feed prices over the last 18 months.
Biotech events for other crops are also developing rapidly – with not only new generation technology coming through but many different biotech events are now ‘stacked’ within one seed, particularly seen in corn seeds, some of the events are approved for import into the EU, some of them not.