IBMA Newsletter. Summer President s Address. International Biocontrol Manufacturers Association. May 2016 Executive Committee Meeting

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1 President s Address May 2016 Executive Committee Meeting During the last couple of months, crop protection topics have been present all over the media. Debates on pesticides like glyphosate and neonicotinoids, endocrine disruptors and more articles on possible mergers of large agchem multinationals. Politicians, the public, NGOs and industry are all taking part in these discussions. Biocontrol is not that prominently in the picture, but for those who follow the more specialised media, news on biocontrol activities is there now all the time. Acquisitions, mergers, distributor agreements, new product approvals and launches, new discoveries are reported every month. These items are signs of the growing biocontrol potential. The media attention for pesticides is usually not in favour of the use thereof and alternatives are desired by many people. Biocontrol and IPM can partly offer this and hence we see sales predictions going up in many marketing reports. More and more meetings are organized focused on biocontrol and biostimulants. It is clear that this trend is a positive sign and that many more are becoming involved and try to join the flow. But a faster growth of the markets for these new products is often hampered by legislation that is not well adapted to innovation and regulatory change is slow to accommodate these novelties that will gradually change agriculture, together with new techniques such as precision Ag and big and/or smart data. We see that our politicians do want this change to sustainable agriculture and that they realise that obstacles need to be removed. Lately two EU Parliamentarians have released reports on how to realize this change with reports on enhancing innovation and economic development in future European farm management from the Dutch MEP Jan Huitema, and on technological solutions for sustainable agriculture in the EU from the UK MEP McIntyre. Both reports call on the EU Commission to accelerate the change to sustainable agriculture and to relieve obstacles for a faster adoption of new techniques. Our own efforts to accelerate placing on the market of low risk PPPs coincide with these developments and we continue to work to achieving our goals. At the end of May we held the ECM in Leuven, a day prior to the Annual Assembly. The ECM approved the 2015 accounts and thanked our treasurer for his efforts having the books in order. The figures were now ready for presentation to the Annual Assembly and for approval by the members. The ECM minutes and the annexes can be found on our website. The usual topics treated at this ECM were the various activities of the National Groups and the Professional Groups; various regulatory affairs and related meetings and events. Worth mentioning is our efforts to improve communication, internal as well as external. This will be followed up by a workshop in September with the ECM members with a consultancy agency to assist us in making the right decisions. The Old Market Square in Leuven IBMA ECM in the Leuven Institute for Ireland in Europe 1

2 Annual Assembly and National Group Heads Meeting The Annual Assembly was attended by 13 Active members with voting rights. The most important topic was the financial accounts of These can be found on the website in the members only section. Some discussion was held on the expenses of our lobbying activities and promotion costs. After explaining this, the accounts were unanimously approved, and our treasurer received applause for this well-executed job. These accounts will be presented again at the General Assembly in October in Basel. Further, an overview of our membership was presented with departing and incoming members, with the total at the end of 2015 being approximately the same as one year before, at 231, which we consider satisfactory. For your calendar, next year s AA is on May 18 th in Leuven.. This meeting was followed by the NG heads meeting with the subjects communication and lobbying at national level on the agenda. Each NG updated the others with the latest progress (if any) against the SUPD with the National Action Plans in their country and the uptake of IPM and biocontrol products. Each NG was asked to list the top 3 opportunities and top 3 constraints. It was no surprise that each country has its own issues and problems, although some generalities were also seen. It is clear that NGs can learn from each other, but also that we need to work together more and try to harmonise between local regulations, definitions, and other activities. In September the group will meet again and will try to make progress on communication and aligning agendas. IBMA Annual Assembly 2016 Low-risk PPPs and Sustainable Plant Protection In our Spring Newsletter I informed you about the Motion for Resolution on accelerating approval of low risk active substances in the European Parliament, and our continuing lobby efforts. We anticipated progress in May and June and a vote in the European Parliament on our Resolution. Unfortunately, this has been delayed despite our and PA Europe s continuous efforts. However, we have made a step forward since the Coordinators of the ENVI Committee have officially decided to draw up an Oral Question (OQ) and Resolution on biological low risk pesticides. Co-sponsors from political groups will be assigned and they will draft the OQ and the Motion for Resolution based thereon. Of course we will monitor the outcome. After an agreement on a draft of OQ and Resolution, these shall be submitted to the President of the EP who shall immediately refer them to the Conference of Presidents of the political groups and they shall then decide when the OQ and Resolution shall be placed on the agenda of the Parliament, after the summer break, for debate and voting. The EU Commission may participate in the debate and should upon a positive vote provide an official response some time later. Through the debate and especially through their official response, the European Commission can clarify how they will implement the Resolution. We will again track these developments and inform you in due course. During the last months we have been regularly in contact with The Expert Group on Sustainable Plant Protection that David introduced in the Spring newsletter. We presented our views on low risk products and implementation of IPM in Europe s agriculture to this group, together with other stakeholders. This group has recently released their recommendations on acceleration of sustainable plant protection as the Implementation Plan. This Plan has been endorsed by all Agriculture Ministers in the EU Council on June 29 th. The Expert Group will stay active for another 18 months and will work out implementation of the recommendations. IBMA is happy with the outcome of the Expert Group, but also critical as we will follow how this will affect our business. David provides more details on the content of the plan. 2

3 2016 Biocontrol Meetings The preparations for ABIM 2016 are progressing, the programme for the conference is nearly finished. We have two high level speakers on regulatory affairs and how they promote biocontrol products. The first is the EPA deputy administrator that had to cancel last year at the last minute. David has managed to have him this year giving his keynote address on the US EPA s support on biopesticides. The second keynote address will be given by Mr. Nepfumbada from South Africa on opportunities to register biological products in South Africa. Other sessions make for an interesting programme, including progress on low risk products with speakers from DG Sante, Ctgb, and IBMA. There is a new type of session on National Actions Plan and progress on adoption of sustainable agriculture and a session on Biocontrol around the globe. We have more sponsors and exhibitors than ever before already now in early July and the number of attendees is also higher than ever before at this point in time. It is clear that you cannot miss the 11th ABIM, and I am looking forward to see you all in Basel. Rhine river view in Basel This year it will be the second time that we will hand out the Bernard Blum Award for Novel Biocontrol Solutions. IBMA will award a trophy, interview and product placement in New Ag International and 2BMonthly publications, as well as complementary registration and an exclusive area to display the winning innovation at ABIM 2016, the premier global biocontrol industry event. Make sure you apply with your novel product for this prestigious award before the end of July, check your s on this or contact the office for more info. Do not miss this very important chance to showcase your products that will make a difference! As our industry s perspective is very positive as can be seen by new marketing reports being announced almost every month with ever higher projected sales in 2020, etc., we also see more events on biocontrol being organized. We cooperate with NewAG International and 2BMonthly in the organization of Biocontrol LATAM, and with the local co-organizer ABCBio, our Brazilian colleague association and member of BioProtection Global. This will take place after the Olympic Games in Campinas, Sao Paulo State, Brazil on November 15 to 17. Biocontrol in Brazil is maybe the fastest growing market in the world so you should not miss the opportunity of visiting Brazil and attending this meeting. I recommend you to register for both meetings before the summer break in order not to miss these important events. IBMA, PAN and partners are having another SUD event with the EP at the end of this year. Preparations have started but the exact date is yet to be confirmed. We will keep you informed via our media. The subject will again be a variation on the progress on the SUD ambitions, and will now be aligned with the recommendations of the Expert Group on sustainable plant protection. We are curious to hear how these recommendations will be put into practice. As you see many activities are planned for after the summer, as usual the autumn will be a busy period, so enjoy the summer break, and return back full of energy and ambitions Josef Riegger - Basel Willem Ravensberg Bernard Blum Award Winner

4 Executive Director s Address EFSA Workshop As previewed in the Spring newsletter IBMA held alongside ECPA a workshop with EFSA. It is the third such event and gives the opportunity for industry to discuss, debate and sometimes even concur with EFSA on issues that are current and have an impact on our industry. Unfortunately the timing did not allow us to place on the agenda some issues, most notably the Bt/Bc identification and alleged causal factor of human illness. Delegates at the meeting found the issues discussed relevant and warranting their attendance and more importantly participation. Ulf Heilig did a great job of chairing the biocontrol parallel session and again in delivering our constructive comments in his plenary presentation. For anyone who still needs to catch up the presentations and information are available on the Members Only section of our website. The highlight for me was undoubtedly that in the past we have placed a heavy expectation as an industry on the potential value of QPS to us for read across particularly for microbials. At the meeting EFSA explained the process of QPS clearly, however the generally agreed conclusion was that it has very little if any use for Plant Protection Products. Central Zone and Southern Zone Steering Committee Meetings It has become a regular occurrence that zonal meetings are held engaging regulators and policymakers within a zone as a standard work practice. There is now also a tendency to engage with stakeholders in these meetings and particularly industry. The annual meetings with industry still focus heavily on chemical plant protection products and active substances. This is unfortunate in some ways, there is a very slow acceptance within some MS competent authorities that biological tools are key component for the future of agriculture whilst others embrace this change more wholeheartedly. On the other hand benefit can be gained from solving many of the procedural problems prior to our industry being directly affected. This is certainly true of Article 43 renewals an issue IBMA members are soon to face with upcoming AIR4 reviews scheduled later this year. This year Ulf attended the Central Zone Steering Committee Meeting and I attended the Southern Zone Meeting. Issues raised and discussed at the SZ meeting were low-risk active substances and PPPs, species-specific PPPs and biological inputs and regulation. This complimented the other industry presentations coming from ECPA and ECCA that concentrated on immediate problems whilst IBMA looked to the future and solving issues that will only grow as plant protection keeps moving towards biology. Again look at the website for details of our presentation. The European Commission in Brussels 4

5 Low-risk Criteria Update Well after many meetings and several rounds of discussion the low-risk criteria are anticipated to be in place before the end of the year! The latest version of the proposed criteria is to be found on the IBMA website. This is going through the prescribed process of interservice consultation, discussion in the Standing Committee and the Parliament before being voted on by the Standing Committee. The criteria do propose specific relevant criteria for biocontrol active substances much of which is based on IBMA proposals from our active Professional Groups. Whilst there are specific criteria to judge biocontrol products the criteria for chemicals has been strengthened and broadened. It now takes all components of the environment into account and uses widely used thresholds. Grouping of well characterised biocontrol substances has been permitted for the first time with semiochemicals and baculoviruses and facilitates this being used for other homogenous groupings as more knowledge is gained in future revisions of the criteria. OECD Meetings IBMA participated actively in OECD meetings in Paris at the end of June. A Seminar was organised by Jeroen Meeussen, the Chair of the BPSG, on the Tuesday. The topic of this year s Seminar was Skin sensitization and microbials. There were good presentations (again available on the IBMA website) and healthy discussion was held. I feel however that entrenched fears of the unknown are difficult to dislodge and there is definitely a sense of déjà vu as we seem to be constantly searching for new methods to reconfirm that safe is really safe. I detail my two biggest disappointments of the seminar. The first remark was that the group was presented with scientific confirmation that the lung is not a sterile organ but one rich in diverse microbial life, by Marrone Bio Innovations. A delegate stated unless exposure to the particular strain of micro-organism being registered as a PPP can be isolated in the lung it is irrelevant. The second was a suggestion that increased data may now be needed to satisfy EFSA, the EU Food Safety Authority, of the safety of microbials. Nevertheless some progress was made particularly in the area of understanding that sensitisation tests bypassing the skin barrier through subdermal administration, are basically not scientifically sound for testing microbials that do not pass the intact barrier of the skin. In the BPSG Meeting on the Wednesday progress was made on several issues which will be reported in the Regulatory Affairs section of the website after the summer. IBMA proposed that data requirements for microbials need revision at some point in the near future and this was acknowledged by other participants. The most likely topic for the next BPSG Seminar was raised at the conclusion of the Seminar and also in the BPSG Meeting and will most likely be around the topic of highly specific biocontrol PPP solutions, their low impact on the environment due to specificity, the burden of regulation preventing them from coming to the market due to niche markets and a need for reduced and rethought regulatory needs. Need I say the topic was proposed by IBMA. In the Working Group on Pesticides there was a discussion on slimming down the activities and especially sub-groups and working parties. The most highly valued sub-group was the BPSG due to it s activities and output. It s role all be it with a different name will continue and Jeroen Meeussen will stay on as the Chair. The WGP has a new chair Kareena Arthy from the Australian Regulatory Agency. She has a direct no nonsense style and acknowledges change is required not only in the way the group works but in the importance of issues that face policymakers and regulators with changing inputs and values. 5

6 ABS - Access and Benefit Sharing The EU legislation on Access and Benefit Sharing has been in place for some time now. We now are engaged in a process of development of general and sector specific guidance for how to interpret and act within this legislation. IBMA have played an important role and are indebted to the enthusiasm, talent and persistence in this topic from Johannette Klapwijk who has led the IBMA participation from the very beginning. She has more recently had support from a group of Philip Kessler, Ulf Heilig, Willem Ravensberg and myself. Johannette and I recently participated in a working group to progress sector specific guidance alongside people representing civil society, academia and the biostimulant industry. There is a meeting planned in Brussels on 21 st September. Implementation Plan from EU Plant Protection Expert Group As stated by Willem and before the Netherlands Presidency established a group to progress towards a more sustainable plant protection within the EU. This group very early established there were two areas they could concentrate on to effectively bring this change. One was bringing more low-risk PPPs to the market quickly and the other was to concentrate on making IPM mainstream. They allowed stakeholders to present their initiatives towards achieving this. Willem and I attended a meeting, held several discussions and communication with the group. At the end of the Presidency a report was produced with as many as forty recommendations. This Implementation Plan can be found on our website alongside our reaction to the plan. But in brief what we said is that we welcome many of the moves including harmonisation and efficiency moves. We also welcome some more ambitious objectives such as withdrawing of semio-chemicals from the scope of the regulation. We do however continue to argue that we cannot wait until a general review of the regulation and risk not achieving our goals as we could again become a bargaining tool for negotiations between parties. We must have the changes as soon as possible. IBMA, IOBC, PAN Europe Exhibition IPM - Working with Nature, in the European Economic and Social Committee IBMA - International Biocontrol Manufactures Association Rue de Treves 61, 1040 Brussels, Belgium Tel.: Executive Director David Cary - M Executive Director Assistant Isabelle Pinzauti Babrzyński - M David Cary 6