Bt crop global market passes $5-B mark

The global market value of biotechnology crops hit the $5.25- billion mark in 2005, registering a significant increase of more than half a billion dollars over that of the previous year.

The $5.25 billion represented 15 percent of the $34 billion global crop protection market last year and 18 percent of the $30 billion 2005 global commercial seed market, reported the International Service for the Acquisition of Agri-biotech Applications (ISAAA).

Last year’s biotech crop market comprised of $2.42 billion for biotech soybean (46 percent of the global biotech crop market), $1.91 billion for maize (36 percent), $0.72 billion for cotton (14 percent), and $0.21 billion for canola.

"The market value of the global biotech crop market is based on the sale price of biotech seed plus any biotechnology fees that apply," ISAAA chairman and founder Dr. Clive James explained in his report covering 2005, which marked the 10th year of the commercialization of genetically modified (GM) or transgenic crops, now more popularly called biotech crops.

In their maiden year in 1996, biotech crops recorded a global market value of $115 million. The value increased to $842 million in 1997, $1.973 billion in 1998, $2.7 billion in 199, and slightly to $2.73 billion in 2000.

In 2001, however, it soared to $3.23 billion, further to $3.65 billion in 2002, $4.15 billion in 2003, and $4.66 billion in 2004.

"The accumulated global value for the 10-year period, since biotech crops were first commercialized in the United States in 1996, is estimated to $29.3 billion," ISAAA reported.

For 2006, the global value of the biotech crop market is projected at more than $5.5 billion.

One milestone last year was the planting of the 400 millionth hectare of a biotech crop by one of 8.5 million farmers in one of 21 countries, Dr. Randy Hautea, ISAAA global coordinator, reported during a media forum recently.

This unprecedented high adoption rate, he echoed an ISAAA report, reflects the trust and confidence of millions of farmers in crop biotechnology. Remarkably, the global biotech area increased more than fiftyfold in the first decade of commercialization.

The global area of approved biotech crops in 2005 was 90 million hectares, up from 81 million ha in 2004, Dr. Hautea, who is also director of the Los Baños-based ISAAA Southeast Asian center, said.

Another milestone was reached last year when 21 countries grew biotech crops, up significantly from 17 countries in 2004.

Notably, of the four new countries that grew biotech crops in 2005, three were European Union (EU) members (Portugal, Spain, and the Czech Republic) while the fourth was Iran, which planted the world’s fifth Bt (Bacillus thuringiensis) rice.

Portugal and France resumed planting Bt maize in 2005 after a gap of five and four years, respectively, while the Czech Republic planted Bt maize for the first time in 2005.

The United States has remained on top of the biotech "mega-countries," planting 49.8 million has to genetically engineered crops. "Mega-countries" are those devoting 50,000 or more hectares to biotech crops.

The others are Argentina, 18.1 million ha; Brazil, 9.4 million ha; Canada, 5.8 million ha; China, 3.3 million ha; Paraguay, 1.8 million ha; India, 1.3 million ha; South Africa, 500,000 ha; Uruguay, 300,000 ha; Australia, 300,000 ha; Mexico, 100,000 ha; Romania, 120,000 ha; and the Philippines, 70,000 ha.

Other biotech crop-producing countries are Spain, Colombia, Iran, Honduras, Portugal, Germany, France, and Czech.

In the case of the Philippines, said Dr. Hautea, it is the first country in Asia to grow a major biotech feed (corn) crop. It is planted Bt maize for the first time in 2003.

Four events of biotech maize have been approved for commer-cial planting in the Philippines. These are MON 810 for insect resistance (2002), NK 603 for herbicide tolerance (2005), Bt 11 for insect resistance (2005), and the stacked gene produce of MON810/NK 603 (2005).

"The future acceptance prospects for biotech crops in the Philippines look very promising with products also being developed by national institutes," ISAAD said.

These are golden rice, fortified rice resistant to tungro virus and bacterial blight being developed by the Department of Agriculture-Philippine Rice Research Institute of Plant Breeding (UPLB-IPB).

Summing up, Dr. James said: "There is cause for cautious opti-mism that the stellar growth in biotech crops, witnessed in the first decade of commercialization, 1996-2005, will continue and probably be surpassed in the second decade 2006-2015. Adhe-rence to good farming practices with biotech crops will remain critical as it has been during the first decade and continued res-ponsible stewardship must be prac-ticed, particularly by countries in the South, which will be the major deployers of biotech crops in the coming decade."