Innovation pipeline at risk
Words: APHANZ
Farmers and R&D companies continue to provide feedback following the Agricultural and Horticultural Products Regulatory Review report released in February 2025.
Farmers need a broad toolkit, not a silver bullet, to face a raft of challenges. They continue to wait for tools that farmers and growers overseas have been using for years.
R&D companies are continuing to scale back applications and trials, citing regulatory and operating environment hurdles.
If a market cannot provide regulatory efficiency and certainty, farmers and growers miss out on innovative products.
Bayer, one of the world’s leading crop companies, has exited R&D in New Zealand. It says the regulatory landscape makes it “challenging to justify the company’s time and the expense required to commence research projects that introduce pipeline products.”
Syngenta, the world’s number one global biologicals producer, has made a recent commitment to remain in NZ but has avoided registering new actives for pests like grass grub and fall armyworm, warning “it is disappointing that farmers and growers are going to lose access to good world-leading technology.”
Corteva Agriscience, which operates a world-class R&D facility in Taranaki, says “other countries have overtaken NZ,” and “farmers in these countries have faster access to the newest innovative chemistries and biological solutions.”
Sipcam, an Italian R&D company, says NZ has gone from being “among the most efficient regulators” to being seen as “competing to be the slowest.”
The primary sector is the engine room of our economy, and these tools are a third gear to lift sustainability and growth, improve environmental outcomes, and replace older chemistry.
If we want to attract innovation, we must create a regulatory environment that enables it.
We can’t afford to fall further behind. Our farmers and growers need to replace older chemistry and deserve a level playing field — with access to innovation already available to their international counterparts.