Biotech food market to hit $28.7 B

MANILA, Philippines - The major rise in food demand due to population growth is driving the rapid  growth of the agricultural biotechnology market, the recent report of  Transparency Market Research showed.

According to the report, the market is seen to grow at an average of 9.5 percent  per annum during the next four years, and is projected to hit a global market  value of $28.7 billion by 2019. Its value hit the $15.3 billion mark in 2012.

The agricultural biotechnology market covers transgenic crops such as cotton, corn, soybean and others. According to the report, the market is dominated by North America due to high cultivation of transgenic crops and wide acceptance of biotech processed food by consumers.

The report also said Europe continues to consume significant amounts of transgenic  crops despite the absence of production due to political opposition to agricultural biotechnology. Europe imports massive amounts of transgenic crops from Brazil and the United States.

The report also said the Asia Pacific market is projected to hit the $7.8 billion mark in five years. The growth is fueled by rising demand for food in the region  coupled with the growth in industrialization.

“Transgenic crops emerged as the largest application of the agricultural biotechnology market,” the report said. “Rising demand for food production with  decrease in arable land is anticipation to drive the transgenic crops application,” the report explained.

The report analyzed the global agricultural biotechnology market in terms of  revenues with a forecast period from 2013 to 2019. It studies the transgenic  crops segment according to the major geographic regions, including North America, Europe, Asia Pacific and the rest of the world.