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WASHINGTON, October 21, 2003 -- CropChoice news -- DTN, 10/17/03:
European millers will stop buying North American wheat
if the US and Canadian governments allow commercial
production of genetically modified wheat, a representative
of the National Association of British and Irish Millers
and the European Millers Association warned today. In
an interview with DTN, Peter Jones, a wheat buyer for
Rank Hovis Ltd., a British milling firm and the chairman
of the NABIM wheat committee, appealed to Monsanto,
a developer of GMO wheat, and US and Canadian authorities
not to commercialize GMO wheat until European consumers
find it acceptable. Monsanto has applied to the US and
Canadian governments for authorization to sell genetically
modified wheat seed on a commercial basis.
This is the first time British and Irish millers have
taken a formal position on the commercialization of
genetically modified wheat in North America. Genetically
modified wheat is currently being grown in the US only
in carefully guarded experimental test plots in order
to avoid its proliferation into the general crop.
Jones told DTN that European millers buy 2.5 to 3 million
metric tons of high protein North American wheat for
bread making. He said three quarters of a million metric
tons go the United Kingdom, one million tons go to Italy
and the rest is spread throughout the other European
Union countries. The four largest supermarket chains
in the United Kingdom, which handle 70 percent of the
food sold in the country, have demanded that baked goods
contain no genetically modified organisms, Jones said.
The millers have been able to tell their customers so
far that flour does not contain genetically modified
wheat because it is not commercially available.
European millers would not buy non-GMO North American
wheat if GMO wheat is grown because the non-GMO wheat
is likely to contain tiny amounts of genetically modified
material that European consumers would find unacceptable,
Jones said. He added that the new European Union food
safety agency is checking foods for content and has
established a "name and shame" policy for
violators of its restrictions and that branded food
companies do not want the negative publicity that would
be associated with the discovery of even small amounts
of GMO wheat. Jones said if North America starts growing
GMO wheat the Europeans would probably buy high protein
wheat from Australia or increase the use of high protein
German wheat in their blends.
Jones said he was speaking officially for NABIM, but
that he is also on the policy committee of the European
Millers Association and that large European millers
have told him they also would refuse to import North
American wheat if farmers begin to grow genetically
modified wheat on a commercial basis. Jones said he
was holding informal meetings with wheat industry officials
in Washington today and that next week he would be taking
his message to Canadian authorities and the Canadian
Wheat Board, the sole exporter of western Canadian wheat.
The British and Irish Millers are "not anti-GMO
as a body, but we can't entertain the idea if our customers
are oposed to it," Jones said. On Wednesday, Monsanto
announced it would close its crop research unit in Cambridge,
England.
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