Biotech Updates

GM Papaya Gets the Nod in Japan

April 23, 2010

Japan gave its approval for the import of genetically modified papaya from Hawaii. The fruits will be available in Japanese supermarkets this year. This was announced by Dr. Dennis Gonsalves, director of the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Pacific Basin Agricultural Research Center in Hilo, Hawaii, and professor emeritus of plant pathology at Cornell University during the 63rd annual meeting of the Western Society of Weed Science in Hawaii.

Gonsalves was the project leader of a research on GM papaya that saved the state's $47 million papaya industry. Papaya, the second largest fruit crop in Hawaii, is commercially grown for export to the U.S. mainland and Japan. About 25-30 percent of Hawaiian papaya is exported to Japan.

The original article can be viewed at http://westernfarmpress.com/citrus/gm-papaya-wins-approval-0421/