China May Take Three Years to Allow Sales of GM Corn

China, the world’s biggest grain producer, may take at least three years before gene-modified corn can be grown commercially, according to a state scientist who participated in the research.

The country has a registration requirement before granting the commercial use of a seed variety, even after the product is deemed safe, Huang Dafang, director of Biotechnology Research Institute of the Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, told reporters in Beijing.

"The product assessment under the Seed Law may take some time,” Huang said. The legal processes will take “at least three years to complete,” he said.

China approved strains of gene-modified rice and corn last year to secure food security and said mass-production will be allowed only after trial planting and public acceptance of the crops. India, the world’s second-biggest producer of rice, wheat and sugar, this month rejected the nation’s first gene-modified food, citing the need for further studies. Cotton has been the only genetically modified product approved by the two countries for output on a large scale.

China’s agriculture ministry in November said the so-called phytase corn, which allows animals to better process phosphate, and a variety of insect-resistant rice meet safety standards.

The corn seed will reduce the phosphate waste by livestock animals by 40 percent, helping cut their environmental impact, said Huang, whose center developed the corn variety.

The procedural requirement is similar for the Bt-strain insect-resistant rice, Clive James, founder and chairman of the International Service for the Acquisition of Agri-Biotech Applications, a biotech industry group, told reporters.

This year, China will be the world’s largest producer of wheat, rice and coarse grains, with a total harvest of about 412.5 million tons, followed by the U.S. at 411.2 million, according to a Nov. 10 forecast by the USDA.