China owns about 2.11 million hectares of tea plantation and the yield has reached 1.62 million tons in 2011. As an important cash crop, the residue problems caused by tea protection products are threatening China’s tea exportation and public health.

On April 24 2013, the MoA issued a notice to the provincial subordinates that a new round of qualification review on pesticide registration labs will be carried out. The testing facilities of efficacy, residue and environmental effect are required to submit their paper application materials to the MoA’s Department of Plantation Management and the ICAMA.

According to a source from the ICAMA, China has established its rules of toxicological study for microbial pesticide and the rules have been fully implemented last September, which could be considered as a major step forward in China’s safety evaluation and regulatory practice on bio-pesticide products.

On April 16, 2013, the MoA solicited opinions on 1280 MRLs of 113 ais  in food. Most of the ais have been included in the “Maximum Residue Limits for Pesticides in Food (GB2763-2012)”, which has been implemented on Mar 1 2013. However, the draft covered more crop ranges and some of the MRLs are more suited to the Chinese diet composition and plantation structure.

On April 15 2013, the MoA published a news release on its website that it has issued an administrative condemnatory recently. The ICAMA registration certificates of four pesticide companies have been revoked for manufacturing the counterfeit or substandard crop protection products.

As the largest glyphosate producers in the world, China’s most rigorous effluent standard of glyphosate producers would be abandoned because the industry remains vehemently opposed to the regulatory changes fearing the financial repercussions to come in the wake.

On 26 February 2013, the Australian Pesticides and Veterinary Medicines Authorities (APVMA) released the preliminary review report on the fenamiphos, which proposed ban on the insecticide/nematocide. The APVMA is inviting further submission from interested person on the findings until 31 May 2013.

Pesticide residue problems and food safety scandals have proved fertile ground for the growth of the biopesticide sector in China's crop protection industry. Addiontally favourable legislation and regulations are designed to prioritize innovation in this sector. Buzz words surrounding the biopeticide industry in China such as, “data exemption” and “faster approval process” have been frequently mentioned by industry experts and ICAMA officials. Yet statistically, of  the 14 applications denied  full new pesticide registration in the second half year of 2012, 8 were submitted as bio-pesticide products. A key failing of these applications was the data submitted in the registration dossier. Insufficient communication between regulators and industry is a key factor in the poor performance of the biopesticide sector. Data Requirement for Biopesticide The supporting document, “Data Requirements on Pesticide Registration” which came into force on 8 Jan, 2008, has explicitly detailed the data requirements of different types of application. As for new bio-pesticides, the requirement falls under the Chapter IV, “Registration for New Special Pesticides”. Generally, biochemical pesticides, microbial pesticide, botanical pesticide, GMO and predator species are classified as bio-pesticide. As the above types of bio-pesticide are distinct in nature and properties, their differences or similarities during registration are demonstrated in Table 1 and table 2 Excerpt of Table 1 For full content of Table 1, click here to Download.   Excerpt of Table 2 For full content of Table 2, click here to Download. Regulatory Amendment on the Way To foster the development of the biopesticide industry, the Ministry of Agriculture issued a revised draft for data requirement on pesticide regulation in April 2011: The antibiotics for farm use will be regarded as biopestici

On 24 Jan 2013, the Ministry of Agriculture published the Announcement No. 1891 to grant testing qualification for pesticide registration. The 17 testing facilities are allowed to conduct full-component analysis for pesticide technical materials in the next three years. Of the 17 facilities, 10 of them are Chinese GLP qualified and therefore  entitled as “GLP-Compliant” institutions. (See table 1).

On 28 Dec 2012, China published the “Chinese Inventory of Management of Imported and Exported Pesticide (2013)”, which has come into force since 1 Jan 2013.