AgbioInvestor’s free-to-access service AgbioInvestor GM Monitor has identified the following GM trait approvals up to April 2024. Expanded details on these recently approved traits, as well as for approvals dating back as far as 1992, can be found on AgbioInvestor’s GM Monitor website.

Genetically modified eucalyptus expressing traits for yield enhancement, herbicide tolerance and insect resistance (triple stack), developed by FuturaGene, a subsidiary of Suzano South America (S.A) who is reportedly the world's largest pulp exporter, has been granted cultivation approval by the Brazilian National Biosafety Technical Commission (CTNBio). This edition of GM monitor will provide a review of GM eucalyptus in Brazil.

Brazil is the only country to have granted approvals for GM eucalyptus. FuturaGene focuses on yield and sustainability enhancement of eucalyptus for the global renewable tree farming sector. The company received cultivation approval for glyphosate tolerant eucalyptus in 2021, and two years later received cultivation approval for eucalyptus containing lepidopteran insect resistance. Later in 2023, stacked trait varieties of glyphosate tolerant and higher yielding, and glyphosate tolerant and higher yielding with lepidopteran insect resistance were approved. The latest approved GM eucalyptus trait stack (955P082 x 1521K059 x H421) is intended to enable sustainable intensification of eucalyptus farm productivity through enhancing yield, pre-emptive pest control of brown looper caterpillar (Thyrinteina arnobia), and tolerance to glyphosate which will allow for more efficient use of the herbicide.

In Brazil, eucalyptus serves as a woody species cultivated for commercial timber and pulp purposes. The country’s eucalyptus area covers approximately 7.6 million hectares.