The Philippines continues to be the top producer of biotech crops in Southeast Asia as corn areas dedicated to genetically modified (GM) corn surged by almost a fifth last year, an industry report said.

The International Service for the Acquisition of Agri-biotech Applications (ISAAA) reported that the country has outpaced Southeast Asia in terms of biotech or GM crop application, and ranking 12th biggest producer of such crops worldwide. The ISAAA was launched on May 4, 2017 in Beijing, China.