Plant health officials in Australia and New Zealand have approved a Queensland University of Technology application to allow commercial cultivation of a banana line genetically engineered for resistance to Panama disease.
Though the disease has not yet reached Australia, officials said the variety was approved to serve as a “safety net” if the disease does spread there, the USDA said in a report.
Food Standards Australia New Zealand said that the Office of the Gene Technology Regulator in Australia issued a license permitting the commercial growth of a genetically engineered banana (QCAV-4).
In February 2024, the Office of the Gene Technology Regulator in Australia issued a license permitting the commercialization of a genetically engineered banana, the report said.
“This license allows Queensland University of Technology (QUT) to commercially cultivate [genetically engineered] banana plants modified for resistance to Fusarium wilt tropical race 4 (TR4), a fungal disease that is also known as Panama disease,” the USDA report said. “Food Standards Australia New Zealand (FSANZ) concluded the [genetically engineered] banana is just as safe and nutritious as a conventional banana.”
This ruling is the first genetically engineered fruit assessed and approved by Food Standards Australia New Zealand and the first genetically engineered banana approved globally, according to the report.
QUT scientists created the QCAV-4 genetically engineered banana by adding a gene from a wild banana into a cavendish banana, resulting in a banana highly resistant to Panama disease, the report said. The Office of the Gene Technology Regulator announced that the genetically engineered banana is suitable for commercial cultivation across several areas in Australia, mainly in Queensland, New South Wales, Western Australia and the Northern Territory.
QUT has advised that there are no immediate plans to commercialize the genetically engineered banana in Australia because Panama disease is absent, the report said.
