Government Defers Decisions on GM Food Imports
- Suggested slug: govt-defers-gm-food-imports-biosafety-decision-october-2026
- Category: Business News
- Focus keyphrase: GM food imports Pakistan deferred
- SEO title: Government Defers Decisions on GM Food Imports
- Meta description: Pakistan’s Biosafety Committee deferred decisions on GM soybean imports, corn licences and cotton applications pending clearer technical advice.
- Tags: GM food, biosafety, agriculture, soybean imports, corn, cotton, National Biosafety Committee, food security
- Original element: explainer context — the 2019 suspension of biotech-food commercialisation and the new National Agricultural Biotechnology Policy 2025 as the policy backdrop; why soybean-meal imports matter for Pakistan’s poultry and feed industries
- Date: Friday, 2026-10-23
Pakistan has deferred decisions on several genetically modified (GM) crop applications, including soybean imports, corn biosafety licences and cotton-related cases, after the National Biosafety Committee sought clearer recommendations from its technical panel.
The decision was taken during the 38th meeting of the National Biosafety Committee (NBC) at the Ministry of Climate Change and Environmental Coordination.
A committee that wants clearer answers
The committee found that recommendations submitted by the 45th meeting of the Technical Advisory Committee (TAC) did not provide clear enough conclusions for final decisions. It sent the pending cases back to the TAC for further review and directed it to submit clear recommendations.
The agenda included approvals for soybean meal imports for food, feed and processing, renewal of biosafety licences for genetically modified corn, and several cotton-related applications. The committee also discussed the hold on the commercialisation of genetically modified corn and other biotech food crops.
Seven years of limbo
A representative of the Ministry of National Food Security and Research said the government had suspended commercialisation activities for biotech food crops in 2019 until a comprehensive policy framework was developed.
The representative said the policy gap had since been addressed through the approval and notification of the National Agricultural Biotechnology Policy 2025, which establishes a regulatory framework for assessing and commercialising agricultural biotechnology products. Authorities have been informed to proceed under the approved policy, according to the briefing.
This means Pakistan has spent seven years in a holding pattern on biotech crops — long enough for neighbouring countries and trading partners to move ahead with their own GM regimes while Pakistani importers and seed companies waited.
Why soybean imports matter
The most commercially significant item on the agenda is soybean. Pakistan imports large quantities of soybean meal to feed its poultry and livestock industries, and global soy supplies are overwhelmingly genetically modified — from the United States, Brazil and Argentina.
Any tightening or loosening of Pakistan’s GM import rules directly affects feed costs for poultry farmers, and through them the price of chicken and eggs for consumers. At a time when food inflation remains elevated, decisions taken in the Biosafety Committee’s meeting room feed through to dinner tables.
Corn and cotton tell a similar story. Pakistan’s cotton crop has struggled for years, and biotech traits such as pest resistance are seen by agronomists as one tool — among many — to revive yields. But the technology remains politically sensitive, and regulators have preferred to move slowly.
What happens next
The cases now return to the Technical Advisory Committee, which must come back with unambiguous recommendations before the Biosafety Committee takes final decisions. There is no public timeline for the next round, but importers, feed millers and seed companies will be watching closely — every month of delay is a month of uncertainty for a supply chain that runs on thin margins.
A policy seven years in the making
The National Agricultural Biotechnology Policy 2025 was meant to end exactly this kind of drift. By setting out how products are assessed and commercialised, it gives regulators a rulebook instead of ad-hoc judgments — and gives industry a predictable path to market.
Whether it works will depend on what the Technical Advisory Committee produces next. Clear, science-based recommendations would let the Biosafety Committee approve low-risk imports such as soybean meal — which Pakistan will keep buying regardless of the decision, given the poultry industry’s needs — while keeping genuine scrutiny where it belongs. Vague advice would simply recycle the deadlock of the past seven years.
