Papaya.
Most of Hawaii's papaya crop is genetically modified. These papayas have been made resistant to a widespread viral disease. GM papayas are not authorized in the EU. Papayas are grown in many tropical countries, but papaya cultivation is being threatened by the Papaya ringspot-virus, a disease that is sharply lowering yields. In the late 1980s, the University of Hawaii began developing a papaya cultivar resistant to the virus. To do this, certain viral genes encoding capsid proteins were transferred to the papaya genome. These viral capsid proteins elicit something similar to an "immune response" from the papaya plant.

These new, genetically modified papaya plants are no longer susceptible to infection, allowing farmers to cultivate the fruit even when the virus is widespread. The first virus resistant papayas were commercially grown in Hawaii in 1999. Transgenic papayas now cover about one thousand hectares, or three quarters of the total Hawaiian papaya crop. Genetically modified papayas are approved for consumption both in the US and in Canada. Several Asian countries are currently developing transgenic papaya varieties resistant to local viral strains. At this point, GM papayas are not approved in the EU. Until now, no application for approval has been submitted. Therefore, importing and marketing genetically modified papayas is not permitted in the EU.

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