Pesticide Minor Use Permit Program: Update March 2022
Greenlife Industry Australia (GIA) and the Australian Pesticides and Veterinary Medicines Authority (APVMA) have completed a complex negotiated adjustment process for the industry pesticide Minor Use Permit (MUP) program. GIA and the APVMA arrived at a workable outcome in December 2021 whereby industry will extract the maximum benefit for the investments made when securing MUPs into the future.
As reported in 2021, GIA has been required to change the overall process around our MUP program with a particular focus on how we go about accumulating active ingredients on multi-active MUPs such as PER81707. Historically GIA has added new insecticides/pests onto PER81707 with the total number of different active ingredients reaching more than 20, a similar situation occurred with the fungicide MUP PER90148 with 14 accumulated active ingredients and rising. The APVMA considered this to be exposing industry to a degree of risk in ensuring these MUPs remained available due to potential active ingredient withdrawals, cancelations or other unforeseen issues that could see these MUPs suspended or cancelled in their entirety.
The resulting negotiated outcome that GIA and the APVMA have arrived at will see multi-active MUPs continue to be available however they will be capped at a maximum of 10 active ingredients and the grouping of the actives will have two criteria applied: one being within a certain risk profile and the other within a pest category e.g., fungal or insect family. The risk profile will consider the active ingredient’s likelihood of being reviewed by the regulator or a requirement for further data, etc., and will consider international actions along with Australia’s potential actions. Therefore, GIA will be seeking MUPs with a renewal timeline of 5 years for low-risk active ingredients, which is an extension of two years to most of the current MUPs, allowing for longer certainty of use and less frequent costs in applying for MUP renewals.
The pest and disease categorisation process will use groupings such as fungal families including Oomycetes which covers phytophthora, pythium and downy mildew or Basidiomycetes that include rusts and rhizoctonia. Other groupings include insect families such as Diptera for gnats and scrabs or Hemiptera that includes aphids, bugs and whitefly. In some cases a MUP will be sought for a specific active ingredient where there are a range of combinations the active ingredient is included within such as mancozeb, as well as grouping like active ingredients such as neonicotinoids that are less certain of maintaining their registration in the short to medium term.
GIA will advise industry as these new MUPs are approved through our communication platforms and, as usual, all industry MUPs will be placed within our web-based Technical Information Library here: www.nurseryproductionfms.com.au under the tab <PESTICIDE MINOR USE PERMITS> at the bottom right of the home screen. This site allows you to search by an active ingredient or by the trade name of a specific product or by a MUP number or by the specific pest or disease you may be aiming to manage. This ability to specify your search requirements nullifies the potential issues around knowing the fungal or insect families associated with these MUPs as we transition from our current system to a revamped MUP program throughout 2022.
If you have any pesticides that you believe should be applied for under the MUP program, please email National Biosecurity Manager, John McDonald at: john.mcdonald@greenlifeindustry.com.au.
