President s Address 2017 is half way through and a busy half year lies behind us, with many of us looking forward to a summer break. I hope this first part of the year has been successful for your business in biocontrol. The full agenda of the association illustrates how many issues are being dealt with in terms of meetings, conferences, workshops, etc. IBMA has been participating in activities with the European Commission, mainly with DG Sante, with the EU Parliament, with the Central and the South Zone, with individual member state authorities, with the OECD, the Minor Use Coordination Facility, and with DG ENVI on the ABS sector specific guideline. Besides contacts with governmental organizations, we have been engaged with many other stakeholders, like the farmers through Copa & Cogeca, with NGO s, with other industry associations like ECPA, EBIC, BioProtection Global, the food chain with regard to the Bt case. And even more. David will address some of these issues more in detail in the Executive Director s Address. In May, we held the Executive Committee Meeting, the Annual Assembly, and the National Group Heads meeting in Leuven, by now our standard location for the May meetings. You can find the minutes of the ECM and the AA on our website. During the AA, the financial accounts from 2016 were approved and at the end of 2016 we had 239 members, a handful more than in the previous year. Overall, I think we can say we are a healthy organization financially as well as with regard to membership. The National Groups meeting focused on sharing information and good practices, and searched for alignment and cooperation as much as possible. Communication was the other topic where our Communication and Operations manager Isabelle was taking the lead and explained where improvements can and will be made. In AOB I explained our talks with the Board of EBIC on potential future collaboration. Continuation of the low-risk dossier In the Spring Newsletter, I reported extensively on our low-risk dossier and the progress we have made in the last 2.5 years. After the near unanimous vote on the Resolution on accelerating low risk pesticides coming to the market in February, the Commission should act. However, we have not seen yet any concrete initiative following the resolution. Together with PA Europe we continue our efforts to move the dossier forward. We briefed the new chair of the ENVI committee of the EP, Ms. Valean, on the need to fill the farmers toolbox with biopesticides as soon as possible. We wrote letters to the Commissioner and his replies indicate he agrees with the need to have low risk pesticides, but he refers to the REFIT procedure. That is exactly what we do not want to wait for, as it that will take many years, if something relevant will happen at all. So, we keep the pressure on and gave a presentation during a multi-stakeholder workshop on low risk pesticides with the EP and the Commission explaining our goal. The Commissioner Andriukaitis also spoke and repeated his plan, as in his letters to us. David was present, also spoke and will give more details. Right now, we are in contact with the EU Presidency Member State Estonia. The delegates preparing the agenda for the EU Council support us fully with regard to the Motion for Resolution and the actions demanded in it. The coming month will be important to see if our topic will be on the agenda and discussed in the Council and will lead to action executed by the Commission. Our attempt is to have the support of the Council, besides that of the EP, so that the Commission will have to take further action in amending 1107. I hope that at the end of the year we know what will be the next step in terms of this desired amendment. Annual Assembly in Leuven, 12 May 2017 1
Biocontrol Events GFIA Europe - Global Forum for Innovations in Agriculture - May 9-10, Utrecht, NL: IBMA participated in this event with a booth and David gave two presentations. The scope of the conference and exhibition was very broad and hence the audience as well. Plant protection was just one of the many topics relating to agriculture and the innovations presented. There were about 2500 attendees from 65 countries, 80 stands, 60 speakers, 50 innovations presented, that all sounds great, but the interest in plant protection innovations such as our biocontrol products was rather small. We have to see whether we will be present in 2018 when again it will be held in Utrecht on June 20-21. Biocontrol Asia: NewAg International & 2B Monthly, in conjunction with IBMA, organized the 2nd Biocontrol Asia Conference & Exhibition, 7th - 9th June 2017 Bangkok, Thailand. I represented BPG as well as IBMA and gave 2 talks about our organizations. There were over 150 delegates from more than 30 countries. Many interesting talks were presented, particularly on the developments in the ASEAN countries, by Thomas Jaekel. In 2019 this conference will visit Asia again, an area where biocontrol is growing the fastest. Biocontrols Africa: this was just held last week. BPG was represented by its President Rick Melnick, chair of BPIA. No report has been received as of today. Biocontrols USA East 2017: the BPIA 2017 Fall Meeting and the Biocontrols USA East Conference and Tradeshow will be on October 9-13, 2017, Orlando, FL, USA. Biocontrol Africa 2018: a two-day Biocontrol conference in combination with the 16th New Ag International conference and exhibition, called The 16th New Ag International Conference & Exhibition: Sustainable High, will be organized by New Ag International & 2B Monthly, in conjunction with IBMA, on 19-20 March 2018 in Nairobi, Kenya. Biocontrol LATAM 2018: this will be held in Colombia in late 2018. Further details will follow. Dutch Minister for Agriculture Martijn van Dam opening GFIA David giving a speech at GFIA 2
IBMA EBIC talks Representatives of the boards of both associations have now met three times to explore collaboration. This is an ongoing process to see what options there are for collaboration between our organizations and the best future outcomes for both. We will continue to survey the thoughts of the memberships and develop procedures to do this. We anticipate further detailed communication to the members in each of our General Assembly respectively in October and November. If the members approve further collaboration this will then be worked out in detail during 2018 to prepare for a final decision by the memberships. Outlook into 2017 Two very essential projects are ongoing in this period, our Low Risk Dossier and the REFIT exercise of the EU Commission. We will spend much time on those in order to get the registration of biocontrol products simpler and quicker. We are committed to achieve this goal on which we have been working for so long. ABIM 2017 is getting closer and we anticipate to reach the number of 1000 attendees this year on our 12 th ABIM. The programme offers very informative talks again and many innovations will be presented. It is obvious that you have to be there, at the premier biocontrol meeting on the planet (the only one we have and therefore we all share an obligation to look after it). Don t miss it, and enjoy a beautiful summer. Willem Ravensberg ABIM 2016 3
Executive Director s Address REFIT DG Sante has signed the contract for conducting the REFIT exercise on 2 pieces of legislation that impact Plant Protection Products (PPPs). One of these pieces of legislation is dealing with mrls and has little direct impact currently on our biocontrol sector. The other piece of legislation is indeed EC Reg. 1107/2009, the major regulation impacting our biocontrol active substances and products. EU COM have engaged a firm of consultants to gather data on the performance of this legislation from various groups of stakeholders. IBMA were fortunate to meet the consultants in a meeting with other associations regulated under 1107/2009 (ECPA and ECCA). Ulf Heilig has already been in communication with members through our Professional Groups circulating a survey to get material for preparing a response from IBMA. He is leading a workshop session in September at an IBMA Executive Committee and National Group meeting. A report is expected to be presented to Parliament and Council in 2019 on the functioning of regulation 1107/2009. It will only be after this that any, if indeed there are any proposals to amend the legislation, are planned to be proposed. However, this report could indeed effect our industry greatly in the long term. EU Parliament meeting 6th June 2017 A MEP who has been hugely supportive of our biocontrol industry from sponsoring our IPM symposiums to coordinating and co-sponsoring our low-risk motion for resolution, MEP Pavel Poc (S&D, Czech Republic) held a round-table event in Parliament to discuss health and environment concerns and also lack of available plant protection tools. He gathered an impressive line-up of speakers including an address by the Commissioner of DG Sante. I was one of a number of speakers from Greenpeace and health professionals to ECPA, that addressed the meeting and argued we need to act now to bring badly needed new solutions to a market fast moving towards chaos. Here at this meeting we had general consensus that human health and environmental issues have reduced and will continue to reduce conventional tools available to our European farmers. All agreed the type of cropping we practice has to be more sustainable and rely more on alternative tools including biocontrol solutions. Commissioner Andriukaitis however seems to place more hope in the REFIT exercise being able to deliver a quick solution to bringing more low-risk biological tools to the market than either his staff or I do! Mr. Poc concluded by saying the EP motion should be acted on and no longer can we place economics above the health of our society. From left to right: Dr. Gert Dohle, Erasmus Medical Centre; MEP Pavel Poc; Commissioner for Health and Food Safety Vytenis Andriukaitis and David Cary, IBMA Executive Director 4
Farm Visit IBMA and PAN Europe conducted another farm visit to the farm of Philip Rothberger in Alsace, when the European Parliament met in Strasbourg in June. It is a great benefit to be able to show MEPs and their assistants how biocontrol tools can be deployed to control pests and diseases. Philip has apples and vines growing and being treated with a range of biocontrol products to maintain a productive and healthy farm. Unfortunately, some of the severest and most ill-timed frosts have hit this region and many others this year. Philip will still be keeping his pests and diseases under control even though yields will be well down this year. It is the first of Philip s farm visits that our Vice President, Vittorio Veronelli and I have been able to attend and I thank him greatly for the professional way he shows people around and the passion he clearly displays for farming and the use of biocontrol. This is a great asset to IBMA and we should find more strategically placed farms to demonstrate the value of our industry s products to modern farming with policymakers from Europe and Member States. If you have any suggestion, please contact me. OECD Seminar and Meetings This year s OECD seminar topic, Niche solutions and Niche markets, was one close to my heart as not only do I see it as a huge challenge for us to meet if we are really going to support the most sustainable agriculture using the tools with the least impact on the environment, but I also proposed the topic to OECD twelve months ago. IBMA member companies gave some great presentations which were well received by country representatives. It has highlighted the issue and policymakers do seem to accept that they have to be part of the solution and that implementation of higher and higher requirements for traditional PPPs and blanket transfer of those requirements and procedures is a big part of the problem in keeping these highly specific products from the market. IBMA will place the report from the seminar on our website when OECD declassifies it. Jeroen Meeussen will discuss it during the plenary session at ABIM. In the newly named Expert Group on Biopesticides Meeting, various issues were discussed and this group continues to be one of the most effective and certainly productive groups in the OECD Working Group on Pesticides (WGP). It was however a pity that in the WGP backing for the IPM sub-group from Member States was not forthcoming, and IBMA in 3rd quarter will try and ensure survival of a group essential to sustainable agriculture for the future by asking some of you with a background in publishing papers to participate in finishing an IPM paper for publication in OECD. Philippe Rothgerber, fruit and vine grower, presenting his Green Farm in Traenheim 5
Bt update As reported in the last edition of the IBMA Newsletter the issue of Bt/Bc (=Bacillus cereus) residues in food is an important one for our industry and resulted in a very highprofile meeting in Copa and Cogeca in March. Some developments have occurred since, which are worth reporting to you. Firstly, Brian Federicci and Ben Raymond, eminent scientists in the area of Bt and microbials have published a scientific paper available as open access which strongly defends the use of this safe microbial in modern agricultural production and criticizes linking human health issues of human pathogenic strains of Bc with commercial Bt strains. The link to this important publication is on the IBMA website. Much of the issue surrounds a non-discriminating test used for Bc contamination of food and a lack of initiative from the food industry. Therefore, even though the identification of strains pathogenic to humans is a food industry and health officials problem, they currently believe the current test method safeguards them from food contamination. A European Cost Action has just started and Andrew Brown and myself participated in a recent meeting of this group in Utrecht. They are now interested to investigate and propose an appropriate method / series of methods for use by the food industry that is discriminatory and permits the use of Bt whilst safeguarding against food being placed on the market with contamination of human pathogenic strains of Bc. Central and South Zone Steering Group Meetings I recently participated in the South Zone Steering Group meeting whilst Ulf Heilig participated in the Central Zone Steering Group meeting. The South Zone continues to be under resourced and hence have had to resort to work sharing. They are looking for solutions to bring low-risk biological tools to the market and see issues with emerging pest problems for the future. Delays to assessments is however a problem not limited to this zone. Renewals of AIR2 and AIR3 have stretched resources to the limit and it is expected AIR4, when biocontrol renewals occur, will be even more problematic. Keep good documentation of any cases and ensure when we ask for problems encountered by members that you engage with us! At the Central Zone Meeting Ulf reported 2 important issues. One is that new vertebrate studies cannot be used in newly submitted dossiers now. The other is that CZ use their secretariat purely for co-ordination of Member State activities. It does not do any co-ordination on behalf of applicants. Please refer to Ulf s information on the IBMA website. Recently Isabelle and Ulf have been re-arranging his information so members can easily find the relevant things they are interested in and make more use of his valuable work give it a look if you haven t visited the Regulatory Section recently! Have a great summer break wherever you go! David Cary IBMA - International Biocontrol Manufacturers Association Rue de Trèves 61, 1040 Brussels, Belgium Tel.:0032 2 231 18 42 Executive Director - David Cary - M. 0044 7775 51 48 40 Communication and Operations Manager - Isabelle Pinzauti Babrzyński - M. 0032 497 69 58 42 www.ibma-global.org Bacillus thuringiensis 6