AbstractThe advances in biotechnology research in the 1980s led to expectations of large-scale applications in agriculture and food production. In the mid-90s, the predicted effects have not yet materialised Biotech research has only resulted in a restricted number of products, and the impact of biotechnology is not a matter of unilinear extrapolation of existing power relations but the result of a complex process which depends on many socio-economic aspects, such as the economics of innovation, public acceptance and regulation. A case study of biotechnology in the Dutch potato chain has been conducted to see what the impact of biotechnology has been so far. Based on literature review and interviews with potato breeders and processors, an indepth view was obtained of the structural changes in the chain and of the role biotechnology in these changes.