Getting horticulture plant protection products to market

Our main priority at AHDB Horticulture is making sure growers have access to essential crop protection products which form a critical component of integrated crop management approach.

Collaboration with plant protection companies is paramount to achieve this. Without this relationship, most products wouldn’t make it through the costly and time-consuming authorisation process.

We spoke to BASF Agricultural Solutions UK about why working with AHDB is critical for the whole plant protection industry and the broader industry.

Interview with Paul Metson (Technical Services Advisor), Matthew Goodson (Marketing Manager) and Rob Storer (Business Development Manager).

Identifying new plant protection products

Our four-year £1.7m SCEPTREplus programme researches high priority pests, weeds and diseases to support the approval of sustainable plant protection products. It builds on the original SCEPTRE programme. We work closely with plant protection companies to identify either novel products, or products with existing label approval to test for new uses on different targets, crops, or application timings.

BASF is one of 34 companies who have contributed to the programme with products to use within the trials.

Over 250 products have been submitted and screened in trials so far. Products include a mix of bioprotectants (biopesticides) and conventional synthetic chemistry.

Joe Martin, Crop Protection Senior Scientist at AHDB, said, “The relationship with crop protection companies is vital for SCEPTREplus as we’re only interested in testing products that have a realistic chance to be able to be brought to market for growers to use. Working closely with these partners makes sure we’re identifying products that growers might not otherwise get access to.”

Paul Metson, said, “BASF have been working with AHDB for many years on both Extension of Minor Use Authorisations (EAMUs) and SCEPTREplus projects, and we share information to the benefit of both.

“SCEPTREplus has been extremely useful for us to be able to develop and see value in areas that are not being looked at, as either a concept or not deemed to have sufficient value for us as a company to use resources on. AHDB, in conjunction with growers of high-value crops, have been able to get projects through that we would not necessarily have pursued.

“The SCEPTREplus trials have also helped to shape our development into further waves of new chemistry by giving us early indications if a concept would work, as well as gauging whether growers were happy to accept ideas and new uses.”

In its third year, the SCEPTREplus programme has already delivered 19 EAMUs and two on-label authorisations in a year. There are many more in the pipeline. This is a good example of farmer-led innovation which has yielded real results and is addressing their needs.

Rob Storer comments, “SCEPTRE has enabled us to identify some useful minor crop uses from our late-stage pipeline. Most of these minor uses would not be progressed by BASF as the value is too small.

“All the uses of Wing-P in field vegetables were progressed through AHDB support. Many of the EAMUs being developed for Perseus were identified through SCEPTRE. The vast majority of Signum off-labels were developed with the help of AHDB.”

Securing authorisations

Due to pressures driven by market factors, crop protection companies often don’t develop products specifically for use on minor horticultural crops, due to the high costs, complexity and resources involved in developing data for applications of use.

As Mathew Goodson states, “The main benefit I see for growers and levy payers is access to BASF chemistry, that without AHDB support, would never gain approval on minor crops due to the costs involved. Projects would never pass our internal business cases due to the size of the minor crops involved. 

Rob confirms, “Without the support of AHDB, the majority of off-labels we have progressed would not have happened. The value provided by most horticultural crops in the UK would not have been high enough for BASF to consider spending time and resource developing within the scope of normal product development.

“The relationship AHDB has had with CRD has helped advise on best practice for understanding certain regulatory issues specific to minor horticultural crops. Often BASF would struggle to justify the time dealing with issues for such minor crops. Having AHDB as a single point of contact for minor crops means it’s easier for BASF to understand the needs of the grower, prioritise and allow us to allocate the right support and resource to enable an EAMU to be delivered successfully.”

Paul adds, “AHDB are very good at listening to growers and responding to their needs. This, in turn, also allows us to be able to offer growers products that they would otherwise not have access to, which enables us to expand our market potential.

“AHDB also provide crop updates throughout the season, which allows me to react in a timely manner to agronomists and growers.”