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AgVetLink: Number 66, February 2008

Global Minor Use Summit

Warren Hughes and Dave Lunn from NZFSA and Peter Ensor from Horticulture NZ attended this meeting in Rome in December 2007. More than 300 people from 60 countries were in attendance. They represented a wide range of industry sectors including regulators, producer groups, retailers, chemical companies and research organisations.

The summit's aim was to explore options to facilitate the approval of speciality crops and minor uses at the national and international level. In particular, it hoped to promote agreement on pesticide residue data requirements for setting maximum residue limits (MRLs) at the national level and by Codex, while facilitating increased co-operation between regulators on data sharing.

Presentations during the first two days covered a range of issues related to data requirements, data assessment and data sharing. The various challenges and difficulties faced by regulators, producers and pesticide manufacturers in getting MRLs established for minor crops were highlighted. Possible opportunities to resolve these difficulties were discussed.

A series of recommendations on how to facilitate the approval of pesticide uses on minor crops/uses and to promote harmonised MRLs were developed on the third day and adopted by the summit. The key recommendations were to:

• emphasise the importance of communication and data sharing, with specific proposals for the Codex Committee on Pesticide Residues (CCPR) to set up a new working group to facilitate the setting of Codex MRLs for minor crops and for the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) to expand their website portal to include more data on minor crops

• encourage national regulators, FAO, OECD and Codex, when developing or revising their data requirements for MRL setting, to take into account the specific problems associated with pesticide use on minor crops and the importance of harmonising these requirements, particularly with respect to setting MRLs for crop groups and the extrapolation of residue data.

Training course

In a supplementary two-day training course, which was conducted as part of the summit, participants were provided with more detailed information on current best practices in conducting and reporting residue trials, assessing residue data and dietary intake risks.