The Ministry of Agriculture of China approved two varieties of transgenic sugarcane produced by the Sugarcane Technology Center (CTC), a Brazilian biotechnology and innovation company for sugarcane.

The ctc's director of regulatory and government affairs, Silvia Yokoyama, stressed that the products were made with totally national technology and guarantee the quality of the sugar generated. "CTC is the first Brazilian company to develop an agricultural biotechnology product that obtains the approval of a transgenic variety in China," he said. "We make sure that our products are safe to consume," he added.

The VARIETIES CTC20Bt and CTC9001Bt are drill resistant and help reduce the use of agrochemicals. They were submitted to the Chinese approval process four years ago and underwent extremely rigorous analysis, which usually requires up to ten years for certification.

"They asked us for documents and sample materials to reproduce the tests. We meet all requirements on time in partnership with governments and the productive sector," explained Yokoyama.

Certification by China ensures that the quality of sugar produced by the transgenic variety has not been altered with genetic modification. "We were able to prove that sugar is still sugar," she said.

In 2022, China acquired nearly 6 million tons of sugar, the only product generated by sugarcane that is imported by the Asian giant. "I think the sugarcane producers here in Brazil are also more relaxed from now on to continue with all these technologies," he added.

CTC has invested about R$ 1 billion in recent years in the biotechnology program for the creation of state-of-the-art laboratories and a database with information on sugarcane varieties, soil, climate and productivity in various regions of the country.

So far, only the two Varieties certified by China have been submitted to the Asian country's assessment, but other technologies may proceed for approval soon. "These two (approved) are the most important varieties of transgenic sugarcane that are being marketed here in Brazil. In the future, if we need to, we will go after other processes as well, as technology evolves," Yokoyama said.

Source: RPA news