The 21 members of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) forum are seeking to ensure food security for the population, the National Institute of Agrarian Innovation (INIA) stated.

“This forum of the 21 economies seeks to find ways to support one another among members in order to move forward and guarantee food security for our population,” INIA Chief Jorge Ganoza told Andina News Agency on Friday.

During the 2024 APEC Food Security Week, held in the northern city of Trujillo (La Libertad region), Ganoza explained that officials and experts from the 21 member economies underscored that biotechnology is a tool essential for sustainable agriculture and a healthy environment.

The official noted that political dialogue is a fundamental pillar in these efforts, facilitating the development of regulatory frameworks, promoting technology transfer, encouraging investment, and strengthening public confidence in this area.

“We have to move forward in this aspect, in technologies that help us and are friendly to the environment, which is important because many times we question the issue of gene editing, which is a modification in the plant to give it certain qualities,” Ganoza said.

“We also seek to become less dependent, because we now depend on the United States, Argentina, and Brazil for imports of corn, wheat, and soybeans. Thus, we seek to reduce dependence, because a nation emerges from underdevelopment when it depends much less on other nations,” he added.

Peru is hosting APEC for the third time after the 2008 and 2016 editions.

21 leading economies 

APEC is made up of: Australia, Brunei Darussalam, Canada, Chile, People’s Republic of China, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Japan, Republic of Korea, Malaysia, Mexico, New Zealand, Papua New Guinea, Peru, the Philippines, the Russian Federation, Singapore, Chinese Taipei, Thailand, the United States, and Vietnam.

Together, they account for 62% of world’s GDP, 48% of global trade in goods and services, plus 38% of the planet’s population.