Law passed to modernize agrochemical registration in Brazil

The Brazilian Senate approved a bill on November 28 that modernizes the rules for approval, registration, and commercialization of agrochemicals. Bill 1,459/2022 has long been a demand from the agribusiness sector and now awaits the approval of the Brazilian president to take effect. The change aims to simplify and expedite the evaluation of new pesticides, which can take up to eight years under the current system.

One of the main updates is the centralization of processes in the Ministry of Agriculture and Livestock, although the National Health Surveillance Agency (Anvisa) still has the authority to veto. The bill also establishes new and shorter deadlines for granting registrations for new technologies. If not met, the new legislation opens the possibility of temporary licenses.

The rapporteur of the new bill, Senator Fabiano Contarato, justified that "the current regulations are over 30 years old, and during this period, the economy, the agricultural sector, and science have evolved significantly through the incorporation of new knowledge, technologies, processes, and instruments."

Here are the main changes:

For research, production, export, import, commercialization, and use, the maximum deadline for registration inclusion and changes will vary, depending on the case, from 30 days to a maximum of two years.

For new products, one would require 24 months, but those intended for research and experimentation may benefit from the issuance of a temporary special registration, with the analysis of the request to be completed within 30 days by the Ministry of Agriculture.

Products not analyzed within the deadlines specified by law may also receive a temporary registration, provided they are registered for similar crops or similar environmental uses in member countries of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD).

The bill only defines and prohibits the registration of pesticides, environmental control products, and similar products that pose a risk to humans or the environment. It will be the Ministry of Agriculture’s responsibility to assess the level of risk of the product intended for registration in the country.

The approved bill increases the fines that can be applied for violating the law. From the current maximum of BRL20,000, they range from BRL2,000 to BRL2 million (5BRL = 1 USD).

The new law maintains a penalty of two to four years in prison for those who produce, import, commercialize, or dispose of residues and empty containers of pesticides violating legal requirements.

On the other hand, the bill stipulates imprisonment from three to nine years for crimes related to producing, storing, transporting, importing, using, or commercializing pesticides, environmental control products, or similar items that are not registered or authorized.

According to the Brazilian Agricultural Research Corporation (Embrapa), Brazil uses more than 300,000 tons of agrochemicals to protect crops annually. The crops that use the most pesticides include soybeans, corn, citrus fruits, and sugarcane.

(Editing by Leonardo Gottems, reporter for AgroPages)

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