Market Watch: Revamped Website Offers Agri-Biotech Product Info

BIO has launched a beefed-up version of its BIOTradeStatus online database of agricultural biotech products.

The revamped site offers up-to-date information, provided by participating companies, on the global authorization status of commercialized agri-biotech products for food, feed and cultivation. 

The site also combines information culled from the previous BIOTradeStatus.com and from BIOExport.net.

BIO hosts the database, and participating companies provide the information. The aim is to help biotechnology stakeholders and investors learn more about how agricultural biotech can be adopted and applied globally. Companies supplying information include BASF Plant Science, Bayer CropScience, Dow AgroSciences, Monsanto, Pioneer Hi-Bred and Syngenta Seeds. 

The site offers new information and functions not previously available: 

• Access: Searching the database is free. There are no username or password registration requirements.

• Search: To peruse the site, visitors can use a variety of search criteria. Products and reports can be located using any combination of the following search categories: commodity, country, event, company, product or OECD Unique Identifier (a nine-digit alphanumeric code given to each transgenic plant approved for commercial use). 

• Data: BIOTradeStatus offers wide and varied kinds of information, including single event or combined event information, authorization status, the different types of regulatory approvals provided by given countries and the current market status for a given product. The market status details how a product may be bought, sold or used in a specified country for cultivation and import. It also includes information about the most recent seed sales.  

Users can also access additional notes containing more in-depth explanations about a product’s authorization or commercial status. The notes are intended to provide supplemental information to help users; they are not promotional corporate materials. 

• Additional help: BIOTradeStatus has links to other biotech information resources, such as the International Life Sciences Institute and the Center for Environmental Risk Assessment. 

It should be noted that BIOTradeStatus in no way provides a comprehensive listing of all agricultural biotech products.