Turkey: Biotechnology and Other New Production Technologies Annual

Türkiye's Biosafety Law continues to threaten imports and imposes a heavy financial burden on the country's agri-food sector. The number of approved of genetically engineered (GE) events remains arbitrarily fixed at 36 and only includes traits in corn and soy for feed use. There are no approvals for food use due to public sensitivities about the technology. These same sensitivities make it difficult for Türkiye to make meaningful revisions to the Biosafety Law. There are also 13 enzymes produced from GE Aspergillus oryzae that are currently approved for feed and industrial use, and one microbial mass (strengthened and inactivated GE Aspergillus oryzae) approved for feed use. Since our last report, MinAF published its testing frequencies for imported GE products.