Country Reports Field trials and commercial cultivation in the Netherlands

Field trials

Many field trials with genetically modified plants were conducted in the Netherlands during the 1990s. These included tests on GM potato, sugar beet, rutabaga, cabbage, carrot, maize, rapeseed, chicory, tomato, chrysanthemum, sunflower, carnation, violet, and apple. After 2000, however, the number of trials significantly dropped off. This year, field trials are being carried out by two biotech companies and one research institution. The company BASF Plant Science is conducting test plantings of its GM potatoes at three sites. AVEBE, a Dutch starch company, is testing its GM amylopectin potato at several sites in northern Holland. Plant Research International, part of Wageningen University and Research Centre, is conducting field trials with fungus resistant GM apples.

An overview of all GMO field trials in the Netherlands can be viewed at the Ministry of Housing, Spatial Planning and the Environment.

A database of all field trials registered in the EU can be accessed at Biotechnology & GMOs.

More statistics

Commercial cultivation

GM crops have never been commercially cultivated in the Netherlands. The Dutch Ministry of Agriculture, Nature and Food Quality, however, is conducting an experiment on coexistence between GM and conventional crops. The tests are being conducted with MON810 Bt maize at six Dutch locations in 2006 and 2007. This marks the first planting of authorised GM crops in the Netherlands. Commercial planting of GMOs in the Netherlands is registered at the GMO register of the Ministry of Housing, Spatial Planning and the Environment.

See also on GMO-Compass:

• GM Crops: Growing around the world
• Genetically Modified Plants: Field Trials in the EU