Belarus plans to launch GMO site in 2012
MINSK. Aug 4 (Interfax) - A site for growing genetically modified organisms (GMO) will be set up in Belarus in 2012, Valentina Lemesh, a deputy director at the Genetics Institute of the Belarusian National Academy of Sciences, said at a press conference in Minsk Thursday.
"We have already begun construction of the site and it will be finished next year. In addition, we are now buying special equipment," she said.
Lemesh said 340 million Belarusian rubles would be spent, of which 140 million would go to buying new equipment for the laboratory at the site.
Initially, Belarus will grow and test "plants obtained, mostly, in scientific institutions," she said. The site will also plant genetically modified potatoes in 2012. "Later we may plant flax and rapseed," she said.
The site will enable Belarus to lawfully enter the GM products market, said Sergei Dromashko, the head of the National Biosafety Coordination Center and chief of laboratory of genetic process modelling at the Genetics Institute.
"In essence we are creating a GM crop line," he said. "We cannot say that GM products will appear on the Belarusian market next year. The GM crops grown and tested at the site will not undergo testing with Gossort [State Testing Committee] and will not obtain a variety status. They will be used for further selection of conventional methods," he said.
Variety testing requires a minimum of three years. "At best the new variety will not be allowed before 2015," Dromashko assed.
The site plans, according to his information, to test crops, in which "genes enable crops to be treated with herbicides that kill weeds but not the plants, which would mean higher yield."
Belarus does not currently produce GM foods.
The official exchange rate on August 4 stood at 4,972 Bel. rubles/$1.