9th Brasil AgrochemShow: Brazil evolves to expedite evaluations and registrations

Brazil has evolved on diverse fronts and is already starting to feel the results of measures to reduce bureaucracy and expedite evaluations and the registration of agrochemicals. This was announced by General Coordinator of Agrochemicals and Related of the Department of Agricultural Inputs Enforcement of the Ministry of Agriculture, Livestock and Supply Júlio Sergio de Britto during his lecture at the 9th Brasil AgrochemShow, which is being held in São Paulo.

 

“We are already having an impact with some measures. Take, for instance, the case of automatic Special Temporary Registration, an authorization for agrochemical companies to conduct research and experiments. Previously, we required evaluations from three agencies (Mapa, Ibama, and Anvisa), which we don’t need anymore. I make the decisions at the ministry, and I’m in control of what is being imported or produced for research, generating information and speeding up the registration process,” he noted.

 

According to Britto, this reduces the cost of agrochemicals for the market: “Today, I have questions from Ibama, which is not part of the process, because the agency saw less revenue from fees than it had projected, based on RET evaluations. But this problem is specific to Ibama. What we believe is that with over 1,000 RETs issued in over four months of research, this will speed up the generation of information for the goal of definitive registration.”

 

The coordinator added that the procedure could be even faster with an increase in Mapa personnel. “As soon as we see improvement on this issue – we hope it happens soon – we will have more technicians from Embrapa to help us. Today, the bottleneck lies at the Ministry of Agriculture because of its inefficient structure. But we’ve sought and identified enforcement agents in the states. I have, this week, an enforcement agent in the state of São Paulo supporting the evaluation of organic and biological products.

 

“Several aspects are being discussed at the Technical Commission of Agrochemical Advice with Anvisa and Ibama, with the goal of easing and speeding up the process of registration without losing security. The environmental and toxicological evaluations are necessary to release a product for the market. But we have evolved a lot, giving the importance that these products require without losing the security focus,” he concluded.