There was also an assurance to the pro-GM lobby in South Australia, the grain-producing state with the strongest State Government opposition to GM and where a moratorium against GM production is still in place, that he had made his views known to the SA government.

"It's a decision that is totally up to them, but they know what I think on this one," Mr Burke said.

"I see GM as a positive. It's obviously not going to be the be all and end all of providing world food security, but it is a piece of the jigsaw.

"Biotech is a massive field and the synergies between researchers is likely to be a boost for the world production."

Mr Burke said that he believed there was growing grower approval of GM lines and, while acknowledging some market resistance, he said he did not believe this was an absolute.

"You can see that markets that will not buy GM grain have no issue with livestock fed on GM grain," he said.

However, the news on GM was not so good from representatives of south-east Asian wheat buyers at the conference.

While GM wheat lines were a long way off hitting commercial pathways, the conference was told consumer acceptance was still far from sealed.

Joe Chan, involved in purchasing wheat for the Indonesian market, said flour millers had no intrinsic opposition to GM, but the lead would be taken from government and there was still a general consumer unease towards the technology.

Along with his upbeat view on GM, Mr Burke was also positive about the Australian grains industry, in spite of the spectre of climate change and the global economic slowdown.

Mr Burke told the 700 grain traders, growers and industry representatives at the Melbourne conference that the fundamentals for the industry were sound.

"The fundamental demand for food has not changed," he said.