China’s Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs (MARA) has awarded safety certificates to 17 gene-edited crop varieties, according to a Reuters report.
The approved crops include two soybean varieties and one each of wheat, corn and rice, along with cotton. The expanding approvals aim to boost high-yield crops, reduce reliance on imports and ensure food security, MARA said.
The newly approved gene-edited varieties include seeds from Beijing-based feed group Dabeinong, BASF and Syngenta subsidiary China National Seed Group.
“Unlike genetic modification, which involves inserting foreign genes into a plant, gene editing alters existing genes to enhance or improve the plant’s traits. Some scientists view gene editing as less risky than genetic modification,” Reuters said in its report.
The safety certificates for the newly approved varieties are valid for five years, beginning on December 25, 2024.
China approved the safety of a gene-edited soybean for the first time in May 2023. The soybean, developed by privately owned Shandong Shunfeng Biotechnology, has two modified genes which significantly raise the level of healthy fat oleic acid in the plant. U.S.-based Calyxt also developed a high oleic soybean approved in the U.S. in 2019. In 2020, the company contracted with to sell all of its high oleic soybean production to ADM.
