In a significant step toward sustainable potato cultivation, Project Opportunity—a coalition of 12 European starch industry partners—has announced the successful completion of its first field trials for CRISPR-Cas-enhanced starch potatoes in Sweden and Denmark. The trials, conducted during the 2025 growing season, focused on introducing late blight resistance into the popular starch variety ‘Kuras’. The project’s speed is a key highlight; researchers moved from first seedlings in a greenhouse to field-grown mini-tubers within a single year. This rapid progression underscores one of the most compelling advantages of New Genomic Techniques (NGTs): dramatically accelerated breeding cycles. Seed multiplication efforts are now underway to produce sufficient material for comprehensive, multi-location field trials planned for 2026.
The drive for a genetic solution to late blight is fueled by the pathogen’s immense economic toll. Phytophthora infestans causes global losses estimated at over €6 billion annually, forcing farmers to rely on costly and repeated fungicide applications. Furthermore, the pathogen’s ability to rapidly evolve new, aggressive strains continually undermines both chemical controls and traditionally bred resistance genes. The CRISPR approach taken by Project Opportunity aims to directly edit susceptibility genes within an elite variety, preserving its valuable agronomic and starch quality traits while stacking the deck in favor of durable resistance. This precision breeding could potentially shorten the development timeline for a new resistant variety by 8 to 10 years compared to conventional methods. This acceleration is critical, as a 2024 report from the European Potato Trade Union (Europatat) emphasized that climate change is altering disease pressure patterns, making the need for resilient varieties more urgent than ever.
The initial field success of Project Opportunity’s CRISPR-edited potatoes is more than a technical achievement; it is a beacon for the future of European agriculture. It demonstrates a viable pathway to align crop production with the environmental goals of the EU Green Deal by significantly reducing pesticide dependency. For farmers and the entire value chain, the promise is a more resilient, predictable, and sustainable crop. While regulatory clarity for NGTs in the EU remains the final hurdle, this project provides a powerful, real-world case study that could help shape a science-based policy, ultimately delivering these innovations to the fields that need them most.
