Monsanto, the world’s largest seed company, said Wednesday it was making good progress on development of an herbicide-tolerant wheat, pushing what would be the world’s first biotech wheat a step closer to market.
Monsanto is already a leading developer of biotech corn, soybeans and other crops and the company has long tried to bring to market a wheat genetically altered to tolerate spraying of glyphosate, the key ingredient in Monsanto’s Roundup herbicide.
“The grain industry and the wheat industry…have remained very interested and supportive of biotech advances,” said Monsanto Chief Technology Officer Robb Fraley in a conference call. “A wheat farmer is also generally a corn and soybean farmer and they understand the benefits of the technology.”
Fraley said while the company continues to make advances, it is still “several years away” from a biotech wheat product launch.
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