Below is an extract from Hort Innovation February Ag-Chem Update – the full version can be found at this link.
A milestone agreement between New Zealand Food Safety (NZFS) and the APVMA will speed up access to new farm chemicals by allowing both countries to share assessment work released 24 November 2025 Media release. This means less duplication, faster decisions, and more efficient regulation for growers. Both regulators say the partnership builds on their already similar systems and will help bring new, innovative products to market more quickly.
The APVMA hosted the conference EPAC2026 – an international conference on Advancing Sustainability in Agriculture: Enabling Precision Application of Crop Protection Products by Inclusion in Regulatory Approaches (Processes), sponsored by the international Organisation of Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) Co-operative Research Programme. The conference took place over 2 days at the Melbourne Convention Centre on 19 and 20 February 2026 and was attended by experts from key sectors including:
• national and international regulators
• leading researchers and equipment manufacturers
• the crop protection industry, consultants and importantly ag-tech interested growers.
The official program for EPAC2026 can be seen here Day 1 featured presentations from international regulators (EU, UK, Canada, Australia), crop protection and technology leaders, and growers who are already using precision application in the field. Day 2 was a practical workshop covering key topics such as definitions and use patterns, how to build trust in new technologies, risk assessment challenges, and how labels can better support precision application. The outcomes and recommendations from this workshop will be provided to the OECD to help shape future global regulatory approaches. Presentations are expected to become available shortly.
APVMA’s Q1 2025-2026 quarterly report shows the regulator is managing a heavy workload, completing 1,505 regulatory activities while still finalising 76.6% of agricultural chemical product applications and 73.9% permit applications on time. However, only 58.9% of technical applications, i.e., involving new product types or new product uses, were completed on time.
The APVMA released new guidance how applicants can use reference products when registering or varying Agvet chemicals. Applications for new generic products or relevant variations can use reference products to minimise data requirements and allow a cheaper and quicker pathway to registration. The update clarifies what information the APVMA must hold to meet safety, efficacy and trade criteria, and explains that reference products can only be used when sufficient supporting data already exists. The APVMA has confirmed that this updated requirement is designed to ensure the APVMA holds suitable data to be satisfied of the criteria and also allow more resources to be allocated to technical applications for new products and new product uses to improve performance on these applications for the benefit of Australian growers.