On 1st October 2015, some important aspects of legislation changed for parallel imports of crop protection products into the UK and a number of commentators from various parts of the agricultural industry are concerned that UK farmers may be disadvantaged once again as a result.
Parallel imported crop protection products are manufactured by the owner of brands already on the market in the UK, but are sourced from other distributors in the EU; hence products have already been proven to the UK’s regulatory authority (CRD) to be safe and efficacious. Sometimes they are confused with generics – a generic pesticide is one that is off-patent and is manufactured by a company other than the original manufacturer. Both parallels and generics tend to be cheaper than branded products.
The new legislation means that parallel imports have to have the original batch number and individual MAPP numbers. Individual MAPP numbers for each source country will mean multiple MAPP numbers for the same product, leading to confusion, complexity and cost. When combined with the requirement to print original batch numbers on the parallel product, the manufacturer can identify who in Europe supplied the product, enabling them (if they choose to) to frustrate future supplies.
“Already UK farmers are struggling with low prices of wheat and oilseed rape, a drop in basic payments, increased legislation and increased input costs. Profitability of a number of crops is being questioned. Surely farmers need the right to purchase cheaper inputs where they can, providing these inputs are of the highest quality and are proven to be identical to branded products? UK farming needs to remain competitive. It seems that with this change in legislation UK farmers do not have a level playing field anymore,” says Tom O’Mahony, MD of Clayton Plant Protection.
“Of course I can be accused, quite rightly, of having a vested interest in parallel imports, having successfully traded in this sector as Clayton Plant Protection for over 25 years. Our products are known to be genuine and obtained from proper EU distribution sources.”
“The new legislation on parallel imports makes life more difficult and, in my view, will not stop companies who do not adhere to the rules bringing in imitation poor quality material from dubious manufacturers, often outside the EU. This is quite the opposite of the registration authorities’ intentions, I believe,” he says.
Graham Dickinson, Crop Protection Director for national distributor Frontier, says that it is important to have a healthy parallel import sector, as it maintains a competitive environment for both farmer and distributor. “Parallel products are a useful sector of the market which helps with continuity of supply when primary suppliers can’t supply in season. We deal with only legitimate companies with legitimate products, however.”
Graham says that the new legislation, which brings complications on batch numbers and differing MAPP number potentially for the same product, will create confusion and major issues with Farm Management Programmes such as Muddy Boots and Gatekeeper. “In my view it could be perceived to be anti-competitive. Nor can I see it helping to expose the illegal suppliers who will carry on as before.”
Another industry commentator said that, with the strong pound at the moment, UK growers are in an excellent position to benefit from parallel imports from other European States – even more so than in the past when the pound was weaker.
“This new legislation could interrupt product supply or it could dry up altogether. It will certainly increase prices. The manufacturer will be able to see instantly who has been exporting and may act to stop this, hence restricting free trade of goods within the EU. Or it could discourage the distributor exporting it in the first place. This seems to fly in the face of free trade to me.”
Tom O’Mahony of Clayton explains that his company when bringing in parallel material records the original batch numbers, adds new batch numbers to protect the supplier and relabels it with an English label. “CRD has verified the source of each product in its country of registration and verified that it is equivalent to that registered in the UK. Sometimes products are sourced in 5 different countries in Europe.
No instances of questions with Health and Safety have ever arisen in 25 years; but if they did, we would be happy and able to provide information on country of origin and original batch numbers immediately on request.”
The general consensus from different parts of the industry is that this new legislation will disadvantage UK farmers, by reducing choice and by increasing input costs at a time when they can least afford it.
