Biotechnology in Fruits and Vegetables: A Lot of Research, Few Approvals

Genetically modified (GM) crops that are planted globally are dominated by a few crops: soybeans, maize, rapeseed, cotton and sugar beets. Research on the development of GM fruit-bearing trees, vegetables, nuts and flowers have been conducted for more than a decade but nothing has reached the market yet except for virus- resistant papaya, squash and carnations. Scientists of the University of California (Davis, USA) Jamie Miller and Kent Bradford conducted a study of scientific publications in scientific magazines and field trials in 24 countries in June 2003 and October 2009.

The scientists found that there were 313 publications on fruit and vegetable biotech researches and 205 researches on various individual traits. They also identified key reasons why these researches did not yield marketable GM crops. Notable reasons include: 1) approval procedures have become more elaborate and demanding, 2) GM fruits and vegetables are hardly financially attractive for the developers because of a smaller market, and 3) consumer acceptance has not really improved for these types of GM crops.

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