TEA, ITALIAN RESEARCH ACCELERATES:SIX TRIALS ALREADY UNDERWAY AND ANOTHER THREE COMING IN 2026

Cibo per la Mente: “Now it is urgent to complete the European process to make innovation available to the agri-food supply chain”

Rome, April 28, 2026 – With six experimental projects already active and at least three more ready to start by 2026, Italian research on New Breeding Techniques (TEA) is entering a phase of full acceleration and confirms itself as a virtuous model of excellence at the European level. This progress makes the completion of the European regulatory framework, awaited by the entire agri-food supply chain to transform research results into concrete tools available to farmers, even more urgent. This was highlighted today in Rome during the event “General States of Italian Research on New Breeding Techniques,” promoted by Senator Luca De Carlo at the Senate of the Republic.

Thanks to measures introduced in recent years, starting with the Drought Decree, extended through 2026, Italy has established itself as one of the most advanced contexts in Europe for in-field experimentation with TEA. Today, the country boasts numerous projects involving strategic crops for Made in Italy such as rice, grapevine, and tomato. In the rice sector, the Ris8imo project at the University of Milan, coordinated by Professor Vittoria Brambilla, aims to develop varieties resistant to blast disease. After overcoming an act of vandalism in 2024, the initiative is about to enter its third year of activity, confirming itself as a pioneering project for national research.

In the viticulture sector, the work of the University of Verona, led by Professor Mario Pezzotti, focuses on obtaining grapevine varieties more tolerant to pathogens such as downy mildew and powdery mildew, to strengthen crop resilience while preserving the identity of the cultivars. This line of research also suffered vandalism in February 2025 but continued its development path undeterred. On the same front, the Edmund Mach Foundation’s project aims to improve the grapevine’s response to downy mildew. In the horticultural sector, CREA is engaged in developing new tomato lines resistant to pests such as broomrape, with improved nutritional characteristics, while the University of Turin is working on varieties more tolerant to environmental stress. These initiatives are joined by the Edmund Mach Foundation’s apple project, aimed at containing the impact of major diseases and improving productive performance.

Ready to be added to these projects are those of the TEA4IT program, coordinated by researcher Concetta Licciardello of CREA, which is currently the main national public research plan on TEA. The project involves key crops such as grapevine, rice, wheat, eggplant, and tomato and has already produced concrete results, with plants ready for field trials by 2026, including blast-resistant rice and tomato lines resistant to pests and more tolerant to stress. In addition, new applications on key species – from grapevine to wheat – are under evaluation or submission, while extensive study and evaluation activities are underway on numerous crops, from citrus to kiwi to cereals.

At the European level, the regulatory process on TEA has entered a decisive phase. In recent days, the Council of the European Union adopted new rules, marking an important step towards the adoption of the regulation. However, it remains essential for the European Parliament to quickly complete the process by voting definitively in the coming weeks, to avoid further delays and ensure a clear and operational regulatory framework.

Senator Luca De Carlo stated: “It is a source of extraordinary pride for me that my amendment opening up in-field experimentation with TEA has allowed Italy to become a promoter of the regulation, which now appears to be on the verge of approval. We owe this to the many Italian researchers who, over the years, have carried out projects without being able to test them in the field. My sincerest thanks go to them. This is an important signal for the entire Italian agri-food system, which must be able to rely on these tools to create more sustainable and productive outputs. Now more than ever, it is essential for institutions to support and accompany this phase by strengthening research efforts and creating the conditions for innovation to be translated into concrete solutions for farmers. It is now necessary for the European regulatory process to be completed swiftly, closing a gap that in recent years has forced Italy to intervene repeatedly to ensure the continuity of experimentation and transform scientific results into real opportunities for our agricultural system.”

“New Breeding Techniques represent an extraordinary opportunity for our sector,” said

, spokesperson for Cibo per la Mente. “The results emerging from field trials show how it is possible to combine innovation, sustainability, and quality of production. The Italian agri-food supply chain looks to these technologies with great confidence. We hope they will soon be made available to farmers, so they can face current challenges with appropriate and competitive tools.”

Statements from the speakers

Concetta Licciardello, Senior Researcher, Council for Agricultural Research and Economics (CREA):“In Italy, research on TEA is already an operational reality, with projects bringing concrete results for crops strategic to our agricultural system. The TEA4IT project coordinated by CREA is a significant example of this commitment, with activities on grapevine, citrus, rice, wheat, eggplant, and tomato, aimed at developing more productive, resilient, and higher-quality varieties. At the same time, experimental trials are underway on crops such as tomato, with the development of varieties resistant to pests such as broomrape and with improved nutritional characteristics, and grapevines and rice resistant to major biotic threats. These are applications that demonstrate the potential of TEA in combining innovation, sustainability, and production quality. The challenge now is to continue on this path, consolidating research results and fostering their transfer to the field and the supply chain.”

Mario Pezzotti, Full Professor of Agricultural Genetics – University of Verona:“New Breeding Techniques are marking a fundamental step for viticulture, aiming to make the production system more sustainable. The results obtained show it is possible to develop grapevine varieties resistant to major diseases, such as downy mildew and powdery mildew, by acting on specific genes without altering their identity. Evidence collected in the laboratory and in the first field trials confirms the potential of these technologies to significantly reduce the use of fungicides, while maintaining the qualitative characteristics of the varieties. The challenge now is to accompany this scientific progress towards concrete applications, encouraging technology transfer and creating the conditions for these innovations to be made available to the wine sector, also in light of the evolving European regulatory framework.”

Vittoria Brambilla, Professor of General Botany – University of Milan:2026 is shaping up to be the most active year ever for field trials of plants improved through TEA in Italy. This is thanks to the opportunities provided by the 2023 drought decree, its extensions, the removal of the obligation to publish field geolocations, and support from MASAF. Italy has the capacity to embrace this innovation in agricultural genetics and to play a leading role. In this positive climate, we are about to transplant, in just over a month, for the third year in a row, a field of TEA rice resistant to blast, larger than previous ones, from which we expect to collect solid scientific data that may help decide whether our work can be safely shared with farmers once the regulations allow.”

Giuseppe Carli, President of Assosementi:“TEA now represents a concrete lever to strengthen the competitiveness of Italian agri-food production, allowing the development of varieties able to respond more rapidly to new requirements of sustainability, quality, and safety. The seed sector has always contributed to enhancing Made in Italy, offering farmers innovation and genetic diversity. Now, faced with increasingly complex challenges, this process must be further strengthened by accelerating the transfer of research results to concrete applications. For this to happen, it is essential that variety improvement can evolve in a context that recognizes its value, supports investment in innovation, and at the same time fosters the link between research and application, thus enabling the development of new solutions across the supply chain.”

Federico Caruso, Lawyer, Partner at SIB LEX, and Arturo Pironti, Lawyer, Head of Legal Support Office at the Edmund Mach Foundation:“The proposed European regulation on New Genomic Techniques (NGT) fits into the evolution of the European Union's regulatory framework in the field of plant production and genetic innovation in agriculture and is still being defined, albeit at an advanced stage of the legislative process, which is hoped to be concluded favorably soon. The central issue is the delimitation of the scope of application of the new discipline and its coordination with relevant regulations in the various sectors involved, to avoid interpretative and practical uncertainties. In this perspective, the implementing and operational measures, which are to give concrete effect to the European provisions, play a decisive role: authorization procedures, information obligations, requirements relating to variety catalogues, labelling, and control systems will need to be defined according to criteria of consistency and uniformity, so as to ensure legal certainty and homogeneous application among Member States. Equally decisive will be the management of field trials, ensuring continuity for those already underway and for those that may be launched pending the full effectiveness of the new rules. The quality of regulation, more than its scope, will be the decisive factor in ensuring the actual operability of the new regulatory framework and in supporting the competitiveness of the Italian agri-food sector.”