South Africa: Agricultural Biotechnology Annual
The production area of Genetically Engineered (GE) corn, soybean and cotton in South Africa increased to 2.7 million hectares in 2016, a 17 percent increase from the 2.3 million drought-reduced hectares in 2015. As a result, South Africa remained the ninth largest producer of GE crops in the world and by far the largest in Africa. In December 2016, the Registrar of the “GMO” Act informed stakeholders, that all GE corn events causing asynchrony with the United States were approved and that applications for import permits was open. Since then, the United States exported 245,000 tons of corn to South Africa, which made a difference in the food security status in southern Africa after drought hit the region during the 2015/16 production season. However, due to a record corn crop in 2017, South Africa returned to be a net exporter of corn with zero import demand.
