Chile Ready to Employ Biotechnology

May 3, 2002

Chile appears ready to increase its competitiveness in the world market through the use of biotechnology and genetically modified crops.

Tom Slunecka, director of development for the National Corn Growers Association (NCGA), recently attended a meeting with governmental, public and corporate representatives from Chile. "Chile is working toward value added process via biotech to increase world competitiveness," he said, "and they are also working to increase capabilities for increasing flow of money from government and private investors to partner these investments."

Chilean pine seed production has increased dramatically through the use of biotechnology. Production costs have been reduced by taking six years off production, reducing it to two years, he said.

Slunecka said there currently is a debate between the general public and industry/government on how fast to move on development of biotechnology versus public acceptance. The internal debate continues "but with the amount of finical support for education and research that is planned by both government and private enterprise, I predict that public acceptance will greatly increase."

Slunecka went on to say Chile still has issues in the area of biotech foods. "Their public will accept biotech foods," he said, "and they are still not sure about labeling. Their policy on biotech seed production call for 200-meter buffer, which is four times the U.S. standard.