Sino-Turkey Workshop on Pesticide Management Held in China

With a view to further promoting China’s pesticide export and intensifying and deepening China-Turkey exchange and cooperation on pesticide management, Dr Yunus Bayram, Deputy Director General of the General Directorate of Food and Control of the Ministry of Food, Agriculture and Livestock of Turkey, headed a delegation to China during 17-22 October 2016, at the invitation of the Institute for the Control of Agrochemicals of the Ministry of Agriculture of China (ICAMA), to have in-depth discussions on pesticide registration rules, review systems, technical standards and trade regulations, and explore the possibility of establishing a long-term inter-governmental cooperation mechanism on pesticide management.

The two sides held the Sino-Turkey Workshop on Pesticide Management in Beijing on 18 October 2016. Each side made presentations on domestic policies and rules and trade regulations on pesticide management. The Workshop was attended by around 50 people, including leaders and experts from the Department of Crop Production of the Ministry of Agriculture of China, ICAMA and provincial institutes of pesticide management, as well as representatives of pesticide industry associations, trade promotion associations and over 20 pesticide import and export companies. Mr. Yan Duanxiang, Deputy Director General of ICAMA, attended and addressed the Workshop. He stated that China, as a pesticide importer, has always attached great importance to the cooperation with pesticide management authorities of other countries, to jointly crack down on illegal trade and maintain fair and orderly international trade. Turkey has been actively involved in pesticide trade with China and imports a large amount of pesticide products from China each year. Dr. Yunus Bayram’s visit to China is expected to not only establish and improve cooperation mechanisms through closer bilateral exchange and cooperation on policies and rules concerning pesticide registration management, pesticide production and international trade, but also improve Turkish experts’ understanding of China’s status quo and capability of pesticide management as well as local pesticide manufacturers’ production through field visits, so as to build up confidence in China’s pesticide industry and products.

Mr. Huang Hui, Division Director for Pesticide Management of the MOA Department of Crop Production introduced the general situation of China’s pesticide management.

Following the Workshop, the Turkish delegation went to Hebei and Zhejiang provinces, where they visited the emamectin benzoate producing plant in Hebei Veyong Bio-Chemical Co., Ltd., the GLP laboratory in Laprode (Zhejiang) Analysis Co., Ltd., and pesticide producing plants in Hangzhou Udragon Chemical Co., Ltd. and Zhejiang Xinan Chemical Industrial Group Co., Ltd. Through this field visit, the delegation gained the first-land information and good impression about China’s pesticide manufacturers, GLP laboratories and pesticide production.

The Turkish delegation thanked ICAMA for the hospitality and diverse and practical arrangements. They especially expressed appreciation of China’s achievements in pesticide registration, GLP laboratory building and risk evaluation, and spoke highly of Chinese pesticide manufacturers’ standardized management, digitalized production, quality control, and international certification systems. Both sides believed that this visit represented a good start to the official cooperation between China and Turkey. Through face-to-face discussions, both sides agreed that they would continue strengthening the bilateral cooperation in the years ahead, set up communication mechanisms to share trade information, and further promote sustainable development of China-Turkey pesticide trade, so as to improve bilateral pesticide managerial and technical cooperation and exchange to a new high.