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October 23, 2015

Reforms to the Chinese Pesticide Regulation System

Bergeson & Campbell, P.C.

Like so many other regulatory programs in China, pesticide regulations are changing.  At the 8th China High-Level Forum on Pesticides, Ying Ji, Chief Agronomist of the Institute for the Control of Agrochemicals, Ministry of Agriculture (ICAMA), stated that the future of pesticide regulation in China will see more emphasis placed on industrial development, registration security, the application of more risk assessment techniques, and will focus more on reducing the burden of procuring registrations for minor use crops.  In China, the vast majority of registrations are for major crops and only a few registrations have been issued for minor crops.  The Ministry of Agriculture also intends to prepare a “List of Pests and Pesticide Shortage for Minor Crops.”

Jun Yang, Director of the Efficacy Division, ICAMA, summarized recent trials and registrations of pesticides.  By the end of August 2015, China had a total of 33,029 registered pesticide products, an increase of 4,300 products when compared with 2013.  The total includes insecticides (12,812), fungicides (8,378), herbicides (7,807), and others including acaricides and plant growth regulators (4,032).  Insecticides were down 3 percent and fungicides and herbicides up 2 percent as a proportion of the total when compared with the total at the end of 2013.  The majority of registered products were issued for off-patent products.  The top ten active ingredients for which products were registered as of 2014 were reported to include:  the antifeedant, pymetrozine; the fungicides, azoxystrobin, tebuconazole and difenoconazole; the insecticides, thiamethoxam, emamectin-benzoate, avermectin and imidacloprid; and the herbicide, cyhalofop and glufosinate.  For more information on the report (which is available only in Mandarin), please e-mail Dr. Brian Xu at bxu@lawbc.com.