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Chile Shows Promising New Developments With Genetically
Enhanced Fruit
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Partnership and collaboration pave the way
to biotech fruit exports
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In a common 21st century agrarian dream, agriculture will be able to feed more
people in a sustainable manner at an affordable cost, keeping pace globally
with increasing population and decreasing arable land. Chile — where government
leaders, university researchers and private investors are working cooperatively
to develop plant biotechnology — could soon come one step closer to achieving
the dream by exporting biotech fruits.
"Chile is a potentially important base for plant biotech activity, in
part due to its relative political and economic stability and strength in technical
research," says C. Ford Runge, a professor and director of the Center for
International Food and Agricultural Policy at the University of Minnesota.1 Chile
has a very open economy by regional standards, with exports accounting for 35
percent of gross domestic product (GDP).2 Chile's investment in biotechnology,
about $50 million a year, is low compared with developed countries and regional
leaders such as Brazil.3 However, Chilean President Ricardo Lagos plans to boost
research and development as part of a five-year biotechnology plan focused on
the country's top exports and cash earners, which, in addition to fruit, include
forestry, mining, salmon and wine.4
Crop commercialization on the horizon
Agriculture plays an important role in Chile's developing economy. In 2004,
the industry represented 11 percent of Chile's GDP of $156 billion and employed
14 percent of the labor force in the country of 15.6 million people.5 The commercialization
of biotech crops promises to further strengthen the agricultural sector. Runge
identifies biotech crop commercialization as the final stage of a four-step
process: government and private-sector research in laboratories or greenhouses,
open-air field trials, regulatory approval, and market acceptance and production.6
Plant biotechnology activity in Chile today includes commercial production
of biotech soybean and canola, laboratory and greenhouse research in vegetables
(potatoes and tomatoes), and stage-one laboratory and greenhouse investigation
of potential biotech traits and genetic enhancements with fruits (apples, grapes,
melons, papayas, pears, plums and stone fruits — namely, avocados, nectarines
and peaches) and other crops such as garlic and tobacco. Chile's genetic engineering
research has focused primarily on fungi and virus resistance — with the goal
of developing hardier species at lower costs and increased volume by enhancing
the disease resistance and longevity of products from harvest to marketplace.
Challenge comes with innovation
Biotech innovation, in general, and biotech crop development, in particular,
face several major hurdles in Chile:
- Acceptance. Some Chilean farmers who tout the natural health and
strength of organic fruit have a bias against genetic enhancement. However,
a 2000 survey by Canadian research firm Environics International indicated
solid support for agricultural biotechnology in general in Chile. Asked whether
the benefits of biotechnology outweighed the risks, 47 percent of Chilean
respondents agreed, compared with 37 percent who disagreed.7 Anecdotal evidence
suggests cultural reticence to embrace biotechnology in Chile is eroding.
"Twenty years ago, biotechnology was seen as the prostitution of science,
and the universities traditionally had a poor relationship with the commercial
sector," says Alfredo de Ioannes, director of the immunological drug
discovery company Biosonda Corp., Santiago, Chile. "So we simply imported
technology and exported raw materials." Today, the government is fostering
biotechnology development by matching private investment to fund biotechnology
research and development.8
- Resources. The pace of plant biotechnology development is slower
than optimum due to lack of financial and human capital. In a 2000 address
to the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), Juan Izquierdo,
FAO regional officer for Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC), highlighted
the need for "adequate technology and trained human resources to start
relevant projects attractive for public and private investment." In 1999,
he said, 539 laboratories had affiliations in 23 Latin American countries,
but 83 percent of those laboratories had fewer than 10 researchers and technical
personnel, and only 72 percent of them had three or more postgraduates. "This
situation reduces opportunities for the development of projects on plant biotechnology
with a [significant] impact on crop production or food security," he
said. "In spite of this, 48 percent of the laboratories are directly
related to private investment and produce healthy plants through tissue culture
and micropropagation, offering a supply of about 75 million plants annually."9
- Local partnerships. Historically, large international companies have
been major funders of plant biotechnology development in Chile and elsewhere.
Chile, like Brazil, wants to better link biotechnology development with indigenous
programs and farmers. The Chilean government believes the country can attract
foreign investment that will be mutually beneficial by setting up consortia
between the biotechnology companies and firms in Chile's most profitable export
sectors.10
Push for biotech production
Chile is proceeding to develop and commercialize biotech fruits through a collaboration
of government, academia and business. Alvaro Díaz, Chile's deputy economic
minister, plans to increase recruitment in biotechnology research and development
within the country.
"By 2006, the government plans to reach at least 1 percent of GDP in science
and technology spending and especially in biotechnology funding," Díaz
says.11 Patricio Arce, a leading Chilean scientist in research to develop cheaper
pest-resistant grapes at Santiago's Catholic University, is bullish on the prospects
for commercial production of biotech fruit: "We believe that by 2008 we
will have a transgenic plant, and Chile will be ready to cultivate transgenic
crops."12 By then, Chilean entrepreneurs and scientists believe they can
develop and patent new species of grapes, nectarines and peaches using genetic
material they make in the laboratory and transfer to the plant.13
As Chile prepares for long-term biotech fruit production, companies are showing
the kind of collaborative force that might lead to long-term success. BioSigma,
a Chile-based joint venture between Codelco (the world's largest copper-mining
company) and Japanese-owned Nippon Mining and Metals Co. (which manages the
government's GENOMA CHILE), already has achieved preliminary results in biological
extraction of metal using genetically enhanced bacteria.14 This partnership example
demonstrates the requirement of "a nontraditional model of management,
focusing on issues and markets that are important to the country in question,
and on productive processes that add value," according to an editorial
in the Electronic Journal of Biotechnology. "This model also demonstrates
the importance of replicating the conditions in which local biotechnology firms,
geared to these objectives, can emerge and in which consortia of local and multinational
firms can develop these more sustainable technologies."15
Forward-thinking strategies
Those involved in Chilean biotechnology development see continued collaboration
between the academic, business and government sectors as key to fulfilling the
promise of the plant biotechnology industry.
"The adoption of intellectual property and biosafety regulations has recently
been promoted, but management and enforcement varies among LAC countries,"
according to W. Roca, C. Espinoza and A. Panta of the International Potato Center,
writing in the AgBioForum. "Chile is the only [Latin American] country
where biotechnological processes can be patented," they state, affirming
this developing country as a prime locus of biotechnology development.16
A dynamic biotechnology industry typically includes clusters of companies and
public research institutions. Researchers and government officials involved
in plant biotechnology development in Chile agree that partnership with the
business sector is the path to success.
"Stimulation of investments and facilitation of the acquisition of technologies
through collaborative partnerships should go hand-in-hand with mechanisms to
link the research with the holders of biological resources," according
to Roca, Espinoza and Panta. "Governments can offer tax and other incentives
to investors; these incentives should encourage the sharing of the derived benefits
with the research partners and with the traditional curators of genetic resources."17
The researchers of the Aug. 15, 2004, edition of the Electronic Journal of
Biotechnology predict that, once government initiates development with seed
capital, the private sector will invest additional funds. "The idea of
this proposition is to position Chilean biotechnology under the umbrella of
successful industries, [similar] to what happened in the United States with
health-related biotechnology organizations that initially served pharmaceutical
companies."18
When it comes to producing genetically enhanced fruit in Chile, this vision
of collaborative partnership may be what's needed to bring dreams to fruition.
For more information:
www.agbioforum.org, "Plant Biotechnology in Asia"
www.apsnet.org, "Transgenic Virus-Resistant Papaya: The Hawaiian 'Rainbow'
Was Rapidly Adopted by Farmers and Is of Major Importance in Hawaii Today"
www.ejbiotechnology.info
www.nature.com
www.sciencemag.org
www.fao.org
www.ncfap.org
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