The Philippines, the first Asian country to commercialise genetically modified corn, has approved the sale and planting of the fourth biotech corn developed by US agrochemical firm Monsanto Co.
The fourth biotech corn - called stacked-trait corn - is resistant to the Asiatic corn borer pest and tolerant to herbicides, a senior official of state-regulator Bureau of Plant Industry, who declined to be named, told Reuters.
"We now have four genetically-modified corn, three of them developed by Monsanto and one by Syngenta," the official said.
Monsanto introduced the Philippines' first biotech corn in 2003.
Its BT corn contains the gene Bacillus Thuringiensis, which is resistant to the Asiatic corn borer pest, the leading destroyer of corn crops in the Philippines, causing losses of up to 80 percent in yields.
"Only the BT corn developed by Monsanto is being used by farmers now," the official said, adding the firm has yet to launch in the Philippines its herbicide-resistant corn under the brand name Round-Up Ready corn.
The same official said Swiss agrochemicals maker Syngenta has yet to promote its insect-resistant BT-11 corn strain in the Philippines.
Government officials have said that biotech corn, largely used for animal feed, has been accepted by the domestic market despite opposition by some environmental groups like Greenpeace.
Some 52,000 hectares were planted with BT corn last year, or two percent of the total 2.5 million hectares planted to corn in the country.
The country imports corn and feed wheat each year as the domestic harvest of corn is lower than demand.
The Philippines bought 540,000 tonnes of wheat and 10,000 tonnes of corn for animal feed last year.
Imports of both corn and feed wheat are expected to be higher this year because of damage from storms late last year and drought caused by El Nino in the first half this year. Philippine corn output rose 17 percent to 5.4 million tonnes last year from 4.6 million in 2003.
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