Article

Tropic has experienced a remarkable journey over the years, evolving from a research-focused start up into a commercial company poised to revolutionise the tropical seed industry. This journey accelerated in 2024 as we made significant progress towards the commercialisation and launch of our first precision bred banana into the market.
Over the course of the year, much of our energy, effort and attention has gone into the products in our pipeline that will be launching in 2025, with massive achievements in the regulatory space, and successful trait phenotypes in the field. Be the first to hear when we start sharing news of these exciting developments by signing up to our newsletter and follow us on LinkedIn. For now, join us in looking back at some of the highlights that made it a truly unforgettable year!
Evolution of Tropic: From Research to Commercialisation
Since Tropic was founded in 2016 with a vision to build the food systems of tomorrow and a mission to grow healthier, more climate resilient tropical crops through cutting-edge genetic innovation; we’ve set a remarkable course to achieve our goals. Years of dedicated research have resulted in developing unique expertise and proprietary tools that position us at the forefront of the industry.
GEiGS® Technology Breakthroughs
Central to this evolution is our proprietary GEiGS® technology, which combines gene editing with gene silencing (RNAi) to allow for precise changes to crop genomes to activate natural disease and pest resistance and improve valuable traits such as yield and quality.
GEiGS requires specific modifications to non-coding genes, called precise gene editing. This is achieved through HDR (homology directed repair) which is very inefficient: less than 1 in a million cells. Our teams have been working to overcome this inefficiency to make products commercially viable, generating an efficient method for selecting GEiGS edited plants in our product pipeline.
In 2024, our dedicated teams all demonstrated GEiGS HDR in rice and banana plants, at levels that enabled efficient production. The method we’ve developed uses a combination of two HDR editing events in a plant cell, one of which creates an edit that can be selected by a herbicide. When plants are regenerated from these edited cells using a specific herbicide we achieve an enrichment of plants that also contain the second HDR event, this time in a non-coding GEiGS sequence.
This scientific and technical achievement now unlocks our ability to use GEiGS in our products and produce high quality non-transgenic plants at scale. This breakthrough radically improves workflow efficiencies as we head into commercialisation.
Launch of LIMS
In December 2024, we launched a state-of-the-art Laboratory Information Management System (LIMS), significantly enhancing how we track, manage, and optimise our processes. The delivery of LIMS is the result of cross-departmental effort and marks an exciting new chapter at Tropic.
LIMS is a transformative system that tracks and traces our materials through their entire lifecycle: from germplasm to plantlet, lab to field trials, and ultimately to market. By capturing each step, it provides unmatched visibility and control, enabling us to document and refine product development with precision.
This centralised digital platform improves data fidelity, streamlines workflows and makes it easier to access and share generated dashboards, ensuring data is always readily available to support decision-making. LIMS also enhances regulatory compliance, allowing for more efficient preparation of regulatory dossiers and upholding biosecurity standards. Customers will gain greater transparency into our processes, ensuring adherence to Excellency Through Stewardship standards and reinforcing trust in the quality and safety of our products.
As we scale up production, LIMS will boost workload efficiency, improve data reliability, and uphold the highest compliance standards. This is more than a technological upgrade—it’s a critical step toward achieving our mission and goals.


Commercial Highlights: Ready to Launch
Product Readiness and Regulatory Approvals
2024 was a pivotal year for Tropic as we move closer to the commercialisation of our first products, we have been laser-focused on the products in our pipeline, achieving critical milestones and successful trait phenotypes in field trials. Successful field trials and resulting crop harvests have proven our market readiness, with confirmation of non-browning and extended shelf-life traits in bananas, as well as significant progress in developing bananas with natural resistance to Fusarium Tropical Race 4 (TR4) and Black Sigatoka disease (BSD).
As the global regulatory landscape catches up with advances in precision breeding and innovative technologies, we’re able to gain approvals and exemptions for product lines made with our tools and technologies. In 2024 we gained regulatory exemption for three varieties of our banana products in Colombia, heralding a huge step forward for growing and exporting gene-edited bananas in the key growing region. Since 2018 Colombia has regulated gene-edited crops on a case-by-case basis, with this exemption our varieties are regulated as conventionally bred plants.
Global Expansion and Team Growth
To support our commercial ambitions, we have opened new offices and presence in Bangladesh and Singapore. These strategic locations enable us to collaborate more closely with key stakeholders, strengthen local partnerships, and provide tailored solutions to regional challenges. Expanding our global reach, and our expertise and capacity in new locations and at our base in Norwich, we have welcomed 25 new team members at Tropic in 2024.
Recognising the importance of real-world validation, we established a dedicated field trial evaluation team. This team ensures our products meet the highest standards of performance and reliability in diverse agricultural environments.
As our team continues to grow, staying true to our core values has never been more important. Building an inclusive, supportive, and passionate culture is at the heart of everything we do. Our summer retreat was a standout moment, bringing our teams together for an unforgettable experience filled with exciting challenges, engaging games, and activities that sparked both inspiration and joy.
Community Engagement
Central to our mission is benefiting communities and promoting social as well as environmental sustainability. Supporting our local communities in the greater Norwich area, in 2024 our teams dedicated over 750 hours to volunteer work, creating positive change, from National Trust properties to compassionate care at Tapping House. Over 2024 our team have painted café walls and park benches, built new composting bays and weeded flower beds, even constructed Christmas trees at Blickling Hall. This work underscores our commitment to creating a positive impact beyond our products.


Expectations for 2025
2025 promises to be a transformational year for Tropic. Our first products are set to launch, marking the culmination of years of our research, development, and preparation. These products will provide natural, sustainable solutions to some of the most pressing challenges in tropical agriculture, from increasing yields to combating disease.
With our expanded global presence and strengthened partnerships, we aim to accelerate adoption and impact in key regions. Our field trial evaluation team will play a critical role in ensuring that the products we launch are well-adapted to the needs of farmers and stakeholders worldwide.
Internally, we will continue to foster a collaborative and inclusive culture as our team grows. Building on the momentum from 2024’s achievements, we are committed to setting new standards for excellence and sustainability in the agricultural sector.