Argentina approved drought-resistant HB4 transgenic wheat through biotechnology company Bioceres SA BIOX. BA, the company and the government announced Wednesday, becoming the first country in the world to approve a strain of GMO wheat.
No country has yet given the green tone to imports of GMO products and Bioceres has stated that it will begin marketing HB4 until it is approved for importation through Brazil, the main destination for Argentine wheat.
“Today, Argentina is leading a technological transformation externally,” Bioceres executive Federico Trucco said in a statement in collaboration with the country’s Ministry of Science and Technology.
“The HB4 generation supplies more drought-tolerant seeds, minimizing production losses and giving greater predictability of yields,” the ministry said in the statement.
While other crops such as maize and soybeans have been widely genetically modified to yield or face threats, GMO wheat has not been approved anywhere for advertising production due to customer concerns. Wheat is basically used for human consumption.
“I will not plant HB4 wheat, and I would not recommend it until it has been approved by the loading countries. It is complicated in the sense that we can end up with crops that no one needs to buy,” said Francisco Santillán, who runs farms in Córdoba, Santa Fe and the province of Buenos Aires.
Last year, 45% of the 11. 3 million tonnes of wheat harvested in Argentina were shipped to Brazil. Brazil’s wheat industry associations director Rubens Barbosa told Reuters that the organization follows the stage with interest.
“We ask the government for data because no country imports GMO wheat,” said Gustavo Idigoras, owner of the CIARA CEC grain export chamber in Argentina.