AgbioInvestor’s free-to-access service AgbioInvestor GM Monitor has identified the following GM trait approvals up to September 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.

South Korea, also known as the Republic of Korea, recently granted new GM import approvals for a mixture of food and feed uses. GMO safety, regulation, and imports in South Korea are controlled by the Korea Biological Safety Guide, with the Ministry of Food and Drug Safety (MFDS) publishing preliminary reviews of submitted data to increase the efficiency of safety review of genetically modified food. South Korea has reportedly conducted extensive research on GM plants such as rice, pepper, lettuce, and grass, however, to date no GM crops have been approved for commercial cultivation in the country, with GM foods and agricultural crops having not gained widespread acceptance due to consumer pushback, despite research efforts. The existing Food Sanitation Act mandates a complete review of food safety, with soybeans, maize, canola and vegetables imported into Korea being expected to fully complete the approval process stipulated in the GMO Act.

The first import GM import approval in the country was granted in 2004, and of 201 approvals that have been granted to date. 3 were approved for feed only use, 20 for food use only, and the remaining majority, 178, receiving combined approval for both food and feed uses. Stacked traits are the most commonly approved trait type (44%), followed by crops that contain only herbicide tolerance (31%), only insect resistant traits (14%) and output traits (11%).

The crop with the most import approvals is maize, which at 48% accounts for almost half of the approved crops. Cotton and soybean, 19% and 15% respectively, are the next largest crop type to receive approvals and are followed by canola at 9%. Potato, which accounts for 5% of the GM crops approved for import, consists solely of varieties with insect resistant traits. The last two crops, alfalfa and sugar beet, make up only a small amount of approvals, accounting for only 3% and 1% respectively.