AVEBE and Aventis in joint venture

Research into the commercial use of genetically-modified potato starch has been agreed in Germany by Aventis CropScience in a joint venture with Dutch cooperative AVEBE, a spokesman said on Thursday. Aventis CropScience is a unit of German-French pharmaceuticals group Aventis . The two have set up a joint venture called Solavista GmbH based in Potsdam in east Germany, where Aventis CropScience has carried out GM and other research into potatoes, Aventis CropScience spokesman Gerhard Waitz said on Thursday. "We have carried out a lot of fundamental research at Potsdam and we have made some interesting products,"​ Waitz said. "The aim now is further develop these things to find commercial uses in industry and later also uses in food in cooperation with our partner, which has great experience in the potato starch sector."​ It is hoped that jointly-developed products will be put on the market by the end of this decade, he added. Potato starch is used in industries including paper production, textiles and glues, he said. It is also used in a wide range of processed foods, as a thickener in sources and in milk products such as yogurt. AVEBE is a cooperative of 4,500 farmers and suppliers with extensive activities in foods, feeds and starches.