New Indonesian Regulations Discussed at FCI Trade Summit
4 December 2012 
Indonesia is in the process of drafting new regulations for the registration of crop protection products. The move toward more internationally accepted standards has been a priority of national governments that want to create stricter environmental standards, better agriculture practices and preserve key trading partners, especially European countries that operate under REACH standards.
The changes will include more rigorous field trial criteria and longer-term toxicity studies for unintended species and the environment. The draft rules are expected to gain final approval later this month or in early 2013. Another addition to the new rule: Registration applicants must have a facility in Indonesia to qualify for a registration permit.
CropLife Indonesia Executive Director Deddy Djunaidi unveiled some of the new changes during his keynote talk on “Pesticide Regulations in Indonesia”. Djunaidi has been a consultant to the Ministry of Agriculture’s Pesticide Rules Committee on behalf of private industry during the rules drafting process.
“The new rules will be good for our country,” he told attendees. “There will be more data requirements based on environmental impact, and I believe it will improve farmer practices (because they will be using more rigorously tested products).”
Thailand overhauled its regulatory systems to mirror the more stringent rules last year, and other countries in the trade bloc are considering them, especially as talks continue to progress on registration harmonization. Unusually, Thailand set an expiry date for all registrations, which created a massive bottleneck as all products were forced to reregister at the same time. In the past year, about 320 have been approved. Thousands still remain in limbo. Indonesia plans to re-register products as they expire. Vietnam is expected to approve similar rules in 2013 as well.
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