The legal and regulatory status of PPPs applied to grapevines and olive groves

Since 2009, the European Union has made significant efforts to reduce the use of plant protection products (PPPs) in agriculture and to replace them with alternative solutions. Their environmental and health impact has been acknowledged, and is now a societal matter on par with issues related to agricultural production.
As research and innovation concerning solutions to reduce the use of PPPs progress, regulations and legal frameworks evolve accordingly. A techno-legal report was conducted presenting a legal and regulatory overview of the state of affairs in 2021, 2022 and beyond, using France as an example. This monitoring work was completed by a database describing the situation of compounds used for treating grapevines and olives (status of approval, and future approval expiry dates.)

A main point of interest of this report regards olives groves, particularly the reversal in the ratio between the number of approved active substances vs. the number of non-approved active substances during the year 2022, suggesting a shortage of phyto treatments for certain diseases.
The situation for grapevines appears less problematic than for olive groves: there will be a peak of expiration dates of approval for PPPs concerning certain major grapevine disorders in the period 2023-2024, however no shortage of active substances for treating these diseases is expected before 2025/2030.

An updated legal and regulatory report will be conducted in 2023 taking into consideration the developments transpired during that year.

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