The chief executive of CTC Centro de Tecnologia Canavieira SA announced that Brazilian regulators have approved the use of a genetically modified version of sugar cane, the first time any country has allowed commercialization of biotech cane, said Reuters. “CTC has made applications to clear sale of sugar made from GM cane in the United States and Canada.”
CTC’s chief exec, Gustavo Leite, said approval would be sought from a half-dozen other nations, including China, India, and Russia. Sugar made from GE sugar beets has been on the U.S. market for years.
The CTC strain of sugar cane is resistant to an insect pest, the cane borer, “one of the main plagues in Brazil’s sugarcane fields,” said Reuters. It uses the Bt gene to generate a natural pesticide. CTC’s Leite said it will be at least three years before the new sugar cane variety is available for export because of the time it takes cane to mature for harvest.