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

The Environmental Protection Authority (EPA) New Zealand will hold public hearings on 4 Mar in Wellington and 7 Mar in Auckland for a group reassessment of organophosphate and carbamate (OPC) based insecticides used for plant protection purposes. The Chief Executive of the EPA New Zealand has released the notification of application and consultation report of the reassessment in early November last year, and the public submission period has just ended recently.

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.

On 28 Dec 2012, China Ministry of Agricultural (MOA) and General Administration of Customs (GAC) jointly published the Announcement1880 to update the “Inventory of Pesticide under Import and Export Management in China”.

The Administration of Quality Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine (AQSIQ) and the Standardization Administration (SAC) announced on 20 Dec  2012 the abolishment of national standards (GB) for the rare earth nitrate plant growth regulators (PGR).

The MoA published the Announcement No 1876 on 19 Dec 2012 and granted the qualification to 29 testing facilities for pesticide registration. The 29 testing institutions are allowed to conduct toxicological studies for ICAMA registration in the next five years. 

The CCPIA revealed that “Limit Standard of Harmful Solvents for Emulsifiable Concentrates Pesticide Preparations" has been finalized and will be issued in no time.The standard sets the limit level of several harmful solvents which are commonly used in the emulsifiable concentrates (EC) of the pesticide preparations.

China is one of the largest pesticide exporters in the world with  exports of 1,440,000 tons in 2011. Chinese pesticides are however criticized by the international stakeholders for being inferior and of poor quality. To combat the dismal reputation of Chinese products, the government is developing new regulations. Although the final legal text of new pesticide regulation has not been published, inferences on its content and scope can be made based on statments made by officials from the ICAMA (the Institute for the Control of Agrochemicals, Ministry of Agriculture). Boosted R&D Oriented and Environmental-friendly Players The Chinese industry is saturated by small and medium sized companies producing a limited number of pesticides. Therefore, fierce competition and underselling of these pesticides to the overseas market is a common phenomenon. R&D activities are almost completely isolated to a number of the larger Chinese companies and of course multinational corportations.In China, pesticide companies are required to obtain both the ICAMA registration and the manufacturing permit issued by industrial authorities: the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT) or the General Administration for Quality Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine (AQSIQ). Only manufacturing companies can be granted the ICAMA registration therefore there is little incentive for R&D. This dilemma will only be solved when registration for new pesticides can be applied for by  non-manufacturing companies and the registration certification can be subsequently transferred to other manufacturers. Furthermore, the “one registration certificate, one manufacturing permit” policy required by manufacturers is also likely to be relaxed. Under this potential ammendment if a pesticide company has been granted a manufacturing permit but not yet granted ICAMA registration, it can be commissioned by other ICAMA registration holders to manufacture the produ

Last month in Hangzhou, official from the Institute for the Control of Agrochemicals, Ministry of Agriculture (ICAMA) has listed ten active ingredients most frequently registered with ICAMA certification in the past three years.