The new Fertilizing Products Regulation (EU) 2019/1009 (FPR [1]) is set to apply from 16 July 2022 and requires third-party certification for many products it covers. As it stands, no accredited certifiers will be ready in time, thus delaying de facto when fertilising products (including plant biostimulants) can be placed on the Single Market under the new regulation even though the old EC regulation will be repealed.
Accreditation of Conformity Assessment Bodies (CABs) is required so that fertilising and plant biostimulant products are able to gain access to the EU Single Market. According to a recent EU Commission Expert Group on Fertilising Products Meeting [2], very few CABs have applied for accreditation across EU Member States to date, and many Member States do not have the necessary framework laws in place.
A lack of CABs would prevent products covered by the FPR from accessing the Single Market. Since Regulation (EC) 2003/2003 would be repealed, new products in categories it covered (e.g. mineral fertilizers and liming materials) would no longer be able to be placed on the Single Market. For products such as biostimulants that do not yet have access to the Single Market, the European market would continue to be fragmented with negative knock-on effects for farmer choice.
Considering that we are less than a year from implementation this issue is becoming extremely urgent and demands immediate attention. EBIC, ECOFI, Fertilizers Europe and IVA therefore urge organisations qualified and eligible to act as Conformity Assessment Bodies (CABs) to apply to become accredited CABs [3] without further delay. Data recently gathered by the IVA, Fertilizers Europe, ECOFI and EBIC indicates significant demand from their members for both product-specific conformity assessment under Modules A1, B+C, D, and D1. The data – collected by a third party in full compliance with competition rules and the resulting aggregated figures – are available to potential CABs and national authorities upon request. The data has already been transmitted to the European Commission.
[1] REGULATION (EU) 2019/1009 OF THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT AND OF THE COUNCIL of 5 June 2019 laying down rules on the making available on the market of EU fertilising products and amending Regulations (EC) No 1069/2009 and (EC) No 1107/2009 and repealing Regulation (EC) No 2003/2003
[2] For the agenda of the June CEG-FP meeting see: Circabc (europa.eu)
[3] As in: Chapter IV of the Fertilising Products Regulation; see the list of notifying authorities in the EU here:https://ec.europa.eu/growth/tools-databases/nando/index.cfm?fuseaction=na.main
