Biostimulants legislation
Scientific regulatory affairs
Regulatory support for biostimulants
As for many other European countries, "biostimulants" is not an official term used by the authorities and it is not found as such in the respective legislation. Rather, biostimulants would fall under so-called "produits connexes", which would be translated as "related products". "Related products" would not fall into one the recognised Belgian Fertiliser categories and they have a specific plant stimulating effect. In this little summary, and in order to maintain some common wording on this site, we will refer to these "related products" as "biostimulants".
Belgium considers as fertilisers soil improvers, which it divides into two main groups: organic amendments and physical amendments.
Fertilisers, soil improvers and treated growth media may container pesticidal active substances. However, these must be authorised (that refers to Regulation 1107/2009) before they can be placed on the market and they must be labelled as such.
Biostimulants can be placed on the market if they comply with at least one of these conditions:- Be listed on Annex I. of Royal Decree of 28 January 2013, or
- Be exempted from that same Decree.
- Be authorised
- Be authorised through mutual recognition
In order to be exempted, you need to request an exemption, providing the "usual suspect" information on your product's composition, labelling, use intention etc.
In case you are wish to see which types of products have been granted a derogation to be placed on the Belgian market (though not compliant with Annex I of Royal Decree of 28 January 2013, have a look at this list.
There is a lot more to say about Belgium, the regulatory overview is currently in the making. If you are interested, subscribe and don't miss its publication !List of derogations obtained to place a biostimulant on the Belgian market
This document is the list of derogations (status 13 07 2020) obtained to place a biostimulant ("produit connexe"), soil improver/conditioner or growth substrate on the Belgian market, although it does not comply with Annex 1 of Royal Decree of 28 January 2013 (Article 5).
This information has been extracted manually from Belgian autorities website and unfortunatly, the informtation can not be exported and it can also not been searched. This document should therefore make your life much easier - because you will be able to scan that list simply with your keywords !
Number of pages: 18
Document Reference: 20BELIVOO120200831
Date of publication: 31 August 2020Belgian Guidance Document on "borderline" products (borderline fertilisers-plant protection products)
This document is the English translation of the Belgian Guidance document on where to draw the line between fertiliser and plant protection products. The document has been published in August 2020, so it's a rather recent one! Phosphonates are mentioned, as well as label claims that place your product in either the fertilisers product or the plant protection category. Very useful !
Number of pages: 25 (document includes the original document in French)
Document Reference: 28BETGV00120200907
Date of publication: 08 September 2020English translation of Belgian label requirements for fertilisers and biostimulants
This document is the English translation of one of the Belgian information notes on label requirements for fertilisers, soil amendments, growth media, sewage slude and related products, the so-called "produits connexes", under which part of all biostimulants would fall. This information note was last updated in 2016 and it explains the legal basis of what you can and can not put on a label.
The translation includes the original terms in French and the original document.
Document Reference: 32BETGV00120200921
Number of pages: 10
Date of publication: 21 September 2020Biostimulants legislation
scientific regulatory affairs | regulatory support for biostimulants