The GM issue mustn’t prevent Welsh farmers from competing fairly in a global market, CLA Assistant Director North Wales Dawn Harding-Maddocks said at the Denbigh and Flint Show.

Welsh farmers needed to be allowed to have the choice to make use of the latest scientific developments, she stressed, and called for a clear and informed debate so that the issues are well understood by farmers and consumers.

Mrs Harding-Maddocks added: "We need to allow the opportunities that this technology potentially provides to be developed and to make sure they are made available to large and small producers so that we in Wales are not disadvantaged.

"We already see a large number of our seeds coming from large multi-national companies and currently they are allowing us access to new varieties. We need to see that carries on with or without any new technology.

"It’s not just GMs. There will be other technologies that we need to take advantage of if we are to compete on an equal footing. One of the problems of a GM free Wales is that some of the large seed houses will tend to ignore us because we are not using their full portfolio.

"I want to use GMs as long as consumers want to use them, and that comes back to an informed debate".

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