Ankara, Turkey
July 13, 2012

USDA/FAS GAIN report

Report highlights:

Following the implementation of the Biosafety Law on September 26, 2010, three soybean events and 16 corn events were approved for import for feed use only. Currently applications for import of EU approved corn and canola events as well as soybean events for food use are being reviewed. A threshold for unapproved events is established as 0.1% for feed.

Executive summary:

Public opposition to agricultural biotechnology increased significantly in 2011 mostly due to campaigns run by NGOs via print and visual media. A number of pseudo- science documents were published by media in 2011. In Turkey, biotechnology is not well understood.

The Biosafety Law went into effect on September 26, 2011. Since the publication of the Law, the Ministry of Food, Agriculture and Livestock established an independent Biosafety Board, consisting of mostly bureaucrats and some academicians. To date importers of agricultural products submitted applications for approval for food and feed of 22 corn, 3 soybean, 3 canola, one sugar beet and one potato starch transgenic events (all currently approved in the EU). Approval for feed and food use must be applied for separately. Of these events, the Board has approved usage for only 3 soybean and 16 corn events for feed use. The rest of the applications are still under review.

The EU recently adopted a 0.1% threshold for unapproved* events in feed material. In September 2011, the Biosafety Board adopted the same threshold for feed.

*Unapproved events refer to events that are not approved but that are currently being reviewed by the Biosafety Board.

Full report

Website: http://www.fas.usda.gov/

Published: August 15, 2012