“There is still a lack of acceptance for this technology in many parts of Europe — from the majority of consumers, farmers and politicians,” said Stefan Marcinowski, a board member with responsibilities for plant biotechnology. “Therefore, it does not make business sense to continue investing in products exclusively for cultivation in this market.”
The company has instead decided to focus on “attractive markets” in the Americas and in Asia, he said.
The withdrawal of the potato leaves a type of corn produced by Monsanto as the only biotech crop grown in Europe.
A total of 140 jobs will be cut in Europe from the company’s plant science unit, which was responsible for developing the Amflora potato, mainly for use in the paper industry, BASF said. Many of those jobs will be moved to the company’s new plant science headquarters near Raleigh, North Carolina, and to other sites in Berlin and Belgium.
Although BASF does not yet sell any other genetically modified crops for cultivation in Europe, the company said it no longer had plans to market other potatoes, including a disease-resistant variety called Fortuna, and a disease-resistant variety of wheat.
Even so, the company said it would continue seeking authorizations to sell its potato products in Europe, a sign that the company was keeping its options open for the future. None of those potatoes, or the wheat, are currently marketed elsewhere in the world.
The decision by BASF is a sign of the difficulties for the biotechnology industries in Europe, including in areas like nanotechnology and animal cloning, said Carel du Marchie Sarvaas, a director at EuropaBio, an industry group.
“The sad irony is that we import biotechnology products into Europe, and that means we’re probably paying more for them than we need to, and we’re losing research jobs to the places where they’re being produced,” he said.
BASF’s decision is a blow for the European Commission, which began a new push last year to allow farmers in Europe to grow gene-altered products in parts of the Union that accept the technology.
In so doing they hope to remove an irritant in trade relations with the United States and with other countries that use biotechnology, and to lower costs for European farmers and industry.
John Dalli, the E.U. commissioner for consumer safety, approved the genetically modified potato two years ago, the first such step in more than a decade.
Environmentalists reacted with fury to that decision, saying that Mr. Dalli had overstepped his mandate, and they cheered the news that BASF would stop trying to sell their biotech products in Europe.
“This is another nail in the coffin for genetically modified foods in Europe,” said Adrian Bebb of the environmental group Friends of the Earth.
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