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Although Spain thinks the Commission should approve the genetically modified variety, any agreement to proceed is being opposed and blocked by countries such as Germany, Austria, Latvia and Denmark.

BASF’s tuber has been engineered to strengthen the starch for industrial use. Experts at the German multinational have been working on this potato for many years and in Amflora, they have inactivated the gene which synthesises amylose. Around 25% of starch in conventional potatoes is amylose. The rest is another compound, amylopectine, which is much more useful for producing paper paste or starch fibre for use in the textile industry. This starch is increasingly being used as a substitute for plastic. With the normal procedure, amylose is machine-extracted and washed, a process which would no longer be required with the genetically modified potato.

If everything goes according to plan, the German multinational anticipates earnings of between 20 and 30 million euros a year and hopes to provide 100 million euros of value-added to the European starch industry and European farmers.

In February 2006 the European Food Safety Authority concluded that Amflora does not present any greater risk to humans, animals or the environment than conventional potatoes. The Spanish Authority has already given its approval. However, environmental groups such as Greenpeace point out that “nobody can calculate what the consequences of this interference will be for public health and the environment”