Expected economic performance of genetic modification in pork production

The purpose of this paper was to quantify technical and economic performance of genetic modification (GM) applications in the Dutch pork production chain. In total, seven GM applications were considered: two with respect to the pig itself, i.e., ‘bovine gene’ and ‘enviropig’, two regarding feed, i.e., ‘GM crops’ and ‘low phytate plants’, and three with regard to feed additives and medicines. The latter included ‘antibodies’, ‘microbial phytase’ and ‘immunocastration’. A partial budgeting model with farrowing and fattening stages was used to estimate the impact of GM applications on cost prices of a 25-kg piglet and 1 kg of pork produced. Overall, the production of pork with GM applications was found to be cheaper than in the default (no-GM) situation. Reductions of cost prices ranged from 0.3% to 3.7% in the farrowing stage and from 0.2% to 2.2% in the fattening stage. Figures were found to be rather robust as sensitivity analyses with more moderate GM impacts still led to cost price reductions for the majority of GM applications considered. The results may contribute to impact assessments of GM policies in a European production environment.