FOOD derived from 60 genetically modified crops can be imported into Australia, but local growers can only grow one GM food crop — canola.

GM proponents say complex and costly regulations, state bans and Australia’s small market mean local farmers cannot access a raft of genetically modified food crops.

Yet Food Standards Australia New Zealand has signed off on the import of food derived from GM potatoes, corn, soybeans, sugar beet and rice, which are found in many of the products sitting on Australia’s supermarket shelves.

Over the past 17 years Bayer, Monsanto, Du Pont, Pioneer, Dow and Syngenta have gained FSANZ approval to ensure there are no Australian import restrictions on food imports derived from these GM crops, which deliver agronomic benefits to US, Canadian, Brazilian, Chinese and other nations’ farmers, such as drought tolerance or resistance to herbicides, disease or insect attack.

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Now a new wave of GM food crops is sweeping the world, which shifts the emphasis from on-farm benefits to consumers.

SPS International recently gained FSANZ approval to ­import food derived from genetically modified non-browning potatoes.

FSANZ is also deciding whether to allow imports of golden rice, which has been ­genetically modified to boost vitamin A levels.

The world’s first non-browning GM apples go on sale in the US next month, ­offering consumers pre-cut and peeled apples and pale juices. In Canada purple GM tomatoes are being commercialised, which produce high levels of antioxidants and will be marketed as reducing the incidence of cancer.

But GM proponents say Australia’s costly and protracted regulatory hurdles are ­restricting farmers’ access to technologies and undermining their competitive advantage. The Office of the Gene Technology Regulator has only received and approved the commercial release of GM canola, cotton, carnations and vaccines.

CropLife Australia chief executive Matthew Cossey said the cost of getting a GM crop to market was about $170 million and could take up to 13 years of research and ­development.

“Regulatory approval accounts for one-third of that cost,” Mr Cossey said. “The Australian market is already quite small and the risk to business in bringing a product to market in Australia is very high.

He called for the removal of “unnecessary regulations” on GM crop innovations to allow access to plant breeding innovations, including scrapping GM bans in NSW, South Australia, and Tasmania.

Victorian Farmers Federation president David ­Jochinke said the fact consumers were eating imported GM foods showed the need to reduce regulatory hurdles.

“With such fast-moving technology we need to be open to its adoption,” Mr Jochinke said.