When a company launches a new product or substance on the market, it is required to follow rules, which are usually established in different regulations. In the case of fertilizer products, there are two regulations that currently govern their placing on the market at European level: EC Regulation 2003/2003 (for the European sphere) and Royal Decree 999/2017 (for the national sphere in Spain). Both regulations include a serie of criteria and standards related to classification, identification, minimum or maximum nutrient content, labelling, analysis methods, tolerance limits, etc. of fertilizer products, which guarantee the use of a quality product to the end consumer. The new European fertilizers regulation will start ruling next year.
The continuous development of new fertilizer products implies that these standards are in continuous adaptation, so that, as they are products, increasingly demanded by the consumer, they continue to be protected by the two legislative frameworks already discussed (the European and the national).
Proof of this is the new EU regulation 2019/1009, which will entry into force on July 16, 2022, it will mean a complete renewal of the current European legislative framework. Among the novelties that this new European Fertilizer Regulation will include, one of the most important will be the free movement within the European Union of all the products that are covered therein (the so-called EU fertilizers or CE fertilizers), so it will no longer specific registration processes will be necessary to be able to market this type of fertilizer within European countries.
On the other hand, biostimulant products, understood as those intended to improve plant nutrition, regardless of their nutrient content, will also be covered by this new regulation. Another novelty that this new regulation will provide will be that the typical fertilizer classification disappears and two new classifications will be available:
CFP: Functional Product Classification
CMC: Component Material Classification
Products will be defined both by their components and by their function in the plant.
The labeling will also change noticeably; The “CE” mark will be included which, together with the EU declaration of conformity drawn up by the manufacturing company or notifying body, as appropriate, will give fertilizer products an unequivocal quality seal that will foreseeably be increasingly demanded by the consumer.
The new European Regulation opens up the possibility of developing new products that were not contemplated before and that, in the near future, will have a place in the European market.
For all this, Indalva strategically develops innovative and sustainable products, both from a regulatory and agronomic point of view, that is, how the products will be registered and what agronomic function it will perform, taking into account agronomic management, climatologies, etc.
It seems essential, therefore, a constant coordination between different departments with multidisciplinary teams, where there is a human team with heterogeneous academic training (biologists, chemists, agronomists) experts in different areas (formulation, regulations, agronomy).