Netherlands: Agricultural Biotechnology Annual

This report assesses the agricultural biotechnology sector in the Netherlands, and covers related production, trade, and policies. It includes topics related to genetic engineering and innovative plant, animal, and microbial biotechnologies. The main development is that the Dutch Ministry of Agriculture, Nature, and Food Quality supports the EC conclusions that innovative biotechnologies can play an important role in greening food production and a revision is needed to make the regulations future proof and fit for purpose. However, the Ministry also emphasized, when expressing it support for revised regulations, the importance of considering food safety, ethical and societal concerns, transparency, and the freedom of choice of the farmer and consumer during development. In the innovation agenda of the Dutch “Top Sector” policy, genome editing is identified as one of the key technologies that may be utilized to improve plant pest resistance and more.