Updated with comment from American Soybean Association.

The European Union has approved three biotech soy traits for import and processing.

The three stacked events:

-Monsanto’s Xtend (dicamba x glyphosate MON87708 x MON89788)

-Monsanto’s Vistive Gold (high oleic x glyphosate MON87705 x MON89788)

-Bayer CropScience’s Balance GT (glyphosate x HPPD inhibitor FG72)

"The EU’s approval of these events is welcome news for U.S. soybean farmers," said USSEC chairman Laura Foell, a soybean grower from Schaller, Iowa. “We’re happy that we can supply our European customers with a reliable supply of safe food.”

The European Union has approved three biotech soy traits for import and processing. (Photo: yelena yemchuk/Thinkstock)

Europe is one of the largest customers of U.S. soybean farmers with over 165 million bushels of soybeans in exports already this year.  

In June, the U.S. Grains Council and U.S. Soybean Export Council combined forces for a series of meetings in Brussels to raise concerns about delays in approvals for soybean and corn biotech events.

On April 11, the American Soybean Association sent a letter to Agriculture Secretary and U.S. Trade Representative Michael Froman urging the administration to press the European Commission to approve the three events. They had been awaiting final approval since January.

“With today’s announcement, we hope that we can take solid steps to ensure that the approvals of new biotech traits in our major markets continues to improve, but there is still work to be done," said American Soybean Association president and Greenwood, Del., soybean farmer Richard Wilkins, in a media statement. "Given the commoditized nature of our soybeans, we simply can’t take the risk that unapproved traits make their way into the grain export stream and result in rejected shipments abroad. But the longer and more tedious that process is, the more barriers stand between soybean farmers and their productivity, and the less incentive our technology partners have to bring these new products to market.”

Source: U.S. Soybean Export Council, American Soybean Association