Singapore, Dec 10, 2007:  The Victorian and New South Wales governments in Australia have given farmers the green light to grow genetically modified canola.

 

Mr John Brumby, Premier of Victoria said, “The decision would not only put Victorian farmers on a level playing field with overseas farmers, it would also deliver significant environmental benefits. Victorian farmers will now have the choice to grow the type of canola they want, enabling them to compete equally with overseas farmers for the first time.”

 

He said that Victoria and New South Wales were acting together to jointly announce that they would end their moratoriums on GM food crops. The moratoriums will come to an end on February 28 2008 in Victoria and within two weeks in NSW.

 

Welcoming the decision, Mr Simon Ramsay, president, Victorian Farmers Federation said, “There were significant benefits to the agricultural sector in having the freedom of choice to grow GM crops. The opening of the GM canola market will also allow Australian growers to compete with their Canadian and American counterparts on a technology basis. The Australian Bureau of Agricultural and Resource Economics warns that we're missing out on hundreds of millions of dollars of trade by not growing GM crops ourselves. ''