‘By the time an organic crop protection product is authorised, it is often already outdated’

23-7-2026

The development of organic crop protection products is taking place quickly, but authorisation procedures in Europe remain an important brake on innovation. This became clear during the latest annual meeting of Belplant, the Belgian branch organisation of the crop protection industry. 

According to Eva Van Hende of the Belgian biotech company Biotalys, the authorisation of new organic crop protection products often takes more than 10 years. “By the time a product is authorised, it is often already outdated from a biotechnology point of view”, she stated. Biotalys is a Belgian agrotechnology company from Ghent, that is working on a new generation of organic crop protection products on the basis of proteins. This company was established in 2013 as a spin-off of the Flemish Institute for Biotechnology (VIB).

According to Hendrik Waegeman of the Bio Base Europe Pilot Plant, organic crop protection products have great potential and are becoming more and more effective and specific. However, when an authorisation is delayed for years, investors pull out, he warned. 

Read more about this in the July/August issue of EFM (for subscribers only)