Bosnia and Herzegovina: Agricultural Biotechnology Annual
After a five-year moratorium on genetically engineered (GE) products imposed with the 2004 Food Law, in 2009 Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH) adopted the Law on “Genetically Modified Organisms” (“GMOs”). This law set up the framework for approval of imports and field releases of products derived from agricultural biotechnology. It took three more years for BiH’s Council of Ministers to adopt the six implementing rulebooks regarding the specific procedures to import and market GE products, yet the regulation outlining the process for approving GE cultivation is still missing. To date, the first and only GE product approved for import is GE soybean meal for feed. BiH’s anti-GE border practices, which include random testing, can occasionally influence commercial imports of grains. Knowledge about agricultural biotechnology is still very limited, even among scientists and agricultural officials. The policy makers and farmers’ main concern is that the country’s export markets could be threatened if GE production were allowed in the country. Report updated: November 2016.
