Pro-GM group, The Producers Forum says the release of the 2007 global GM crop statistics from ISAAA highlights that the world is moving on while most Australian farmers are being left behind.

But anti-GM group, the Gene Ethics Network, claims the figures show the GM expansion has stalled.

National convenor of the Producers Forum, Jeff Bidstrup, says the latest statistics show farmers in developing countries are "leaving Australia's grain producers in their dust".

"The ISAAA report shows that in 2007, the global area grown to GM crops was 114.3 million hectares, which is up by 12pc - or 12.3 million hectares - on the previous year," he said.

"We are repeatedly told by the doomsayers that Europe opposes GM crops; yet France, Czech Republic, Portugal, Germany, Slovakia, Romania and Poland all grew GM crops in 2007, and the EU overall imports massive amounts of GM soy and corn."

Between 1996 - when GM crops were first commercialised - and 2007, the growth in the adoption of these varieties has increased 67-fold, the Forum says.

Farmers in developing countries have leapfrogged Australia, with 11 million farmers in these countries growing GM crops – mainly cotton, corn and maize.

Over 43pc of the total area planted to GM crops was grown in countries like India, China and Paraguay last year.

Australian farmers have only been allowed to grow GM cotton.

"The huge global adoption increase demonstrates that other farmers around the world also see the value in approved GM varieties - but it is a sad state of affairs that most Australian grain growers have been denied a choice," Mr Bidstrup said.

But Gene Ethics Network director, Bob Phelps, says the ISAAA figures show the expansion of GM technology has stalled.

"For yet another year, the ISAAA inflates growth in the GM industry, boosts adoption figures and ignores the negative health, environmental and economic impacts of GM crops," Mr Phelps said.