Adjuvants Uncovered Episode 4: The Impact of Regulatory Changes and Emerging Challenges
4 December 2025 The global crop protection industry is facing a period of unprecedented change. In the final episode of AgriBusiness Global’s Adjuvant webinar series, panelists: Andrea Alquicira, Marketing Manager for the Americas at Evonik; Terry Abbott, Senior Product Portfolio Manager for Adjuvants at Adjuvants Unlimited and former Chairman of the CPDA; and Dr. Ruifei Wang, Scientist, Research & Development – Agricultural and Food, at Nouryon, shared their insights on how increasing regulatory scrutiny, rising resistance issues, and growing costs are shaping the next phase of agricultural innovation.
A Tightening Regulatory Landscape
Across markets, companies are grappling with the growing complexity of agricultural regulations. Governments are tightening standards for product safety, environmental impact, and human health, while also setting aggressive timelines for phasing out certain chemistries and materials like microplastics in formulations. These changes, while critical for sustainability, have created significant challenges for product development.
Abbott noted that bringing a new chemistry to market has never been more difficult—or expensive. “It’s getting harder to come up with newer types of chemistry,” he said. “They’ve been around since the mid-1940s, so it’s harder to find new options, and with every passing year, it becomes more costly to register and develop them.”
This regulatory tightening is especially burdensome for global companies managing portfolios across multiple regions. Each market comes with its own rules and approval processes, and a lack of harmonization between countries continues to slow progress.
The Double-Edged Sword of Reduced Pesticide Use
As regulations push for lower pesticide usage and reduced chemical footprints, the industry faces a paradox: fewer applications can sometimes accelerate the very problem they are meant to solve…resistance.
Abbott described the challenge as a “double-edged sword.” Reducing pounds of active ingredient per acre may satisfy regulatory limits, but if applications aren’t fully effective, resistant weed populations can multiply. “A dead weed doesn’t reproduce,” Abbott said. “If we’re not getting a thorough kill, we’re just giving weeds another chance to develop tolerance or resistance.”
To counter this, adjuvants are becoming increasingly important. By improving the delivery and uptake of active ingredients, adjuvants help ensure that even reduced-chemistry formulations achieve effective control. “The pesticide is doing the work,” Abbott explained, “but the adjuvant makes sure it’s working as efficiently as possible.”
Rising Costs and the Innovation Bottleneck
Panelists agreed that developing new crop protection products, chemical or biological, requires enormous investment, lengthy testing, and extensive regulatory review. These barriers have created what Wang called an “innovation bottleneck.”
“The cost and time required for a new pesticide are extremely high,” he said. “That’s why innovation in adjuvants and formulation technology is so critical. It’s faster, more flexible, and can enhance the performance of existing actives.”
This reality is driving companies to invest in formulation science, where advances in surfactants, emulsifiers, and delivery systems can unlock performance gains without requiring entirely new actives. It’s also encouraging more cross-industry collaboration, as chemical and biological developers work together to build solutions that meet modern sustainability and regulatory standards.
The Path Toward Global Harmonization
A recurring theme throughout the discussion was the urgent need for greater alignment between regulatory agencies around the world. Differences in data requirements, testing standards, and approval timelines can delay product launches by years and add significant costs to global development programs.
“Harmonization would go a long way toward helping companies innovate faster and deliver safer, more sustainable products to farmers everywhere,” Alquicira said. “Right now, the complexity makes it hard to meet local needs while still keeping up with global demands.”
Looking Forward
Despite the hurdles, the panelists expressed cautious optimism about the industry’s future. Advances in technology, improved understanding of biological systems, and smarter adjuvant formulations are creating new opportunities for innovation even within a constrained regulatory environment.
As the crop protection industry navigates a future defined by regulation, resistance, and rising expectations, one message is clear: innovation will not stop. It will simply evolve.
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