New Global Study Highlights Importance of an Efficient and Timely Regulator for Australia’s Farmers

With the global effort required in developing new crop protection innovation getting more difficult and costly, an efficient and timely regulator is crucial for Australian farmers accessing the next generation of crop protection products.

A new study, Time and Cost of New Agrochemical Product Discovery, Development and Registration, conducted by world leading agricultural market intelligence firm, AgBioInvestor, has found that developing a crop protection product based on a new chemical active ingredient now costs an average of US$307 million and takes more than 11 years. Additional investment is then required to bring these technologies to the Australian market.

Comparing these results across the past 30 years shows that every step of product development has been more expensive.  The cost of the exploratory research required to develop just a single new chemical active ingredient has grown to a massive US$133 million.

With the challenge of developing the new technologies to secure the future of food production becoming more complex and more expensive, CropLife Australia, the peak industry body for the Australian plant science industry, is calling for more to be done to ensure that Australian agriculture remains a priority market.

Chief Executive Officer of CropLife Australia, Matthew Cossey, said, “Globally, registration timelines have decreased, indicating positive momentum from both industry and regulatory authorities. However, the same cannot be said in Australia, where the regulator’s delays have only worsened over recent years and proposed hikes in regulatory costs threaten the investment required to support our farmers with the innovation they are calling for.”

“Australia represents a relatively small share of the global crop protection market, but our surging $100billion agriculture export industry relies on it every day. If Australia becomes an outlier in regulatory complexity, assessment timelines or fees, our farmers will see unnecessary losses in productivity while they are denied new innovation available to their international competitors.

“The AgBioInvestor report shows the global pressures Australia needs to respond to.  Now is the time for the APVMA to lift its performance, to lean into its scientific capacity and deliver its high-quality regulatory assessments in a more timely, predictable and cost-effective way.  This will support the global plant science industry’s confidence in Australia as a place to do business.

Mr Cossey concluded, “Australia can secure the farming technologies of tomorrow by ensuring the predictability and efficiency of our regulatory system doesn’t become a barrier to the safe and effective innovations our farmers need to grow more, more sustainably.

Industry analyst and report author Derek Oliphant said, “Our findings reflect a global industry responding to increasing cost, complexity and compliance. Costs for the plant science industry are trending upwards, and the tighter margins make smaller markets, like Australia, a less attractive destination for investment.”

Mr Oliphant went on to say, “Australia can still position itself as a market where these innovators want to compete.  Sustained effort to deliver timely, efficient and predictable science-based regulation and improving intellectual property protections will support the plant science industry to continue their long-standing and successful relationship with Australian farmers.”

Learn more by joining the authors of the Time and Cost study at CropLife Australia’s exclusive webinar on the 16^th of September.

ENDS

Link to the AgbioInvestor study: Time and Cost of New Agrochemical Product Discovery, Development and Registration.