An Update on the GROU Program

Jackie Fraser, Executive Director, AGCare

AGCare continues to try to find answers to the questions that Ontario’s growers have on the Grower Requested Own Use (GROU) program, which has replaced the Own Use Import (OUI) program.

Currently, there are nine products available under the GROU program: Aatrex Liquid 480, Gavel 75DF Fungicide, Touchdown iQ liquid herbicide, Reflex liquid herbicide, Roundup Weathermax with Transorb 2 technology liquid herbicide, Banvel II herbicide, Basagran liquid herbicide, GF-120 NF Naturalyte Fruit Fly Bait, and Bravo ZN.

Syngenta made a change to their Canadian Bravo formulation in order to make it the same as the U.S. formulation, thus enabling it to be approved for GROU. Unfortunately, there has been a change in the formulation for American Roundup WeatherMax herbicide, so we don’t know if we will lose this product from the GROU program.

A list of products was put forward by national farm organizations sitting on the GROU Task Force; however, we don’t yet know what products were “nominated” or which ones will be added to the GROU program this year.

We are asked regularly whether groups of farmers can “share a truck” to bring product across the border on behalf of that group. The answer is yes. Growers may work together with other farmers and arrange for one Certificate holder to transport the GROU product. In that case, the person making the declaration must have an approved Import Certificate in the driver’s name pertaining to that importation, approved Import Certificates corresponding to
the product being declared, and original bills of sale corresponding to the Import Certificates.

One of our board members had to endure a lengthy wait at the border. We notified PMRA of this, telling them they need to talk to Canada Customs to make the process easier. The PMRA has assured us that it is currently working on providing the appropriate information to Canada Customs to ensure that importers do not have any obstacles when importing GROU product.

When the GROU program was created, a number of other issues were addressed, such as better access to generic products. Over the past few months, an improved system for registering generic pesticides has begun to be implemented. The primary goal of the Protection of Proprietary Interest in Pesticide
Data Policy (PPIP) is to encourage innovation, by providing fair protection of the proprietary interests in data, while providing a predictable, timely process for the introduction of competing generic pesticides to the Canadian market. A number of major generic manufacturers have indicated their support for
the new policy and signaled their intention to increase the number of submissions for generic pesticide registrations in Canada.

A very promising related initiative is NAFTA labels. Products can be registered as part of a joint review process, allowing growers on both sides of the border access to new products at the same time as well as a built-in price discipline mechanism. Products with NAFTA labels are registered in both the U.S. and Canada under the same label, meaning they could cross the border with relative ease. The PMRA and the U.S. EPA approved three NAFTA
labels during 2007 and a fourth NAFTA label was approved on January 31, 2008. Many other NAFTA labels are currently under review by PMRA and the U.S. EPA, including several for new active ingredients being registered through joint review. The four products with NAFTA labels are Simplicity herbicide, Reflex liquid herbicide, Gavel 75 DF fungicide, and Avadex Microactiv herbicide.

AGCare has asked what the “trigger” would be to go back to the OUI program if growers were unhappy with GROU. We found that details surrounding the trigger have not been finalized.

AGCare will continue to find answers to questions about the GROU program on behalf on Ontario’s growers. We will have this information up on our website (www.agcare.org) very soon. Please feel free to contact us at any time if you have questions to ask or experiences to share. We will continue to strive for price discipline for our crop protection products, whether it’s under the GROU program, through NAFTA labeling, or a different program altogether if these aren’t producing the results our growers need.