Federal Public Service (FPS) Health, Food Chain Safety and Environment

DG4 Pesticides and Fertilizers

Eurostation, Place Victor Horta, 40/10, B-1060 Saint-Gilles, Belgique

See sub-concepts below.

The data set comprises the annual sales of active substances contained in plant protection products placed on the national market for one calendar year according to the Regulation (EC) No 1185/2009 as amended by Commission Regulation (EU) 2017/269 of 16 February 2017 as regards the list of active substances.

Royal Decree of 28/02/1994 on the approval and authorisation of companies manufacturing, importing, exporting or packaging pesticides for agricultural use.

The national legislation is available on : http://www.ejustice.just.fgov.be/cgi_loi/change_lg_2.pl?language=fr&nm=1994016033&la=F

Federal Public Service for Public Health, Food Chain Safety and the Environment

1994

As far as we know, only the volumes of pesticides placed on the market are covered by a national legislation.

The obligation of declaration concerns the quantity by weight or volume of approved pesticides for agricultural use (commercial products).  Pesticides for agricultural use include prducts which are not stricto sensu plant protection products.  

The data are expressed in kilograms of active substances.

The classification of the active substances in plant protection products is annexed (Annex III) to Commission Regulation (EU) 2017/269 of 16 February 2017 amending Regulation (EC) No 1185/2009 of the European Parliament and of the Council concerning statistics on pesticides.

The active substances are classified according to chemical and functional similarity. Aggregation levels in descending order comprise: major groups, categories of products, chemical classes and active substances.

The statistics cover the wholesale and retail trade sector operating in placing plant protection products on the market.

All authorisation holders of plant protection products report the quantity of all active substances that are placed on the market nationally (incl. import and export data).

This data collection comprises pesticide sales data based on the term 'placing on the market' as defined in Regulation (EC) No 1107/2009 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 21 October 2009 concerning the placing of plant protection products on the market. The scope of the Regulation covers plant protection products and their active substances as can be seen from the key terms of the act immediately below:

Plant protection products: products consisting of or containing active substances, safeners or synergists, and intended for one of the following uses:

• protecting plants or plant products against all harmful organisms or preventing the action of such organisms, unless the main purpose of these products is considered to be for reasons of hygiene rather than for the protection of plants or plant products;
• influencing the life processes of plants, such as substances influencing their growth, other than as a nutrient;
• preserving plant products, in so far as such substances or products are not subject to special Community provisions on preservatives;
• destroying undesired plants or parts of plants, except algae unless the products are applied on soil or water to protect plants;
• checking or preventing undesired growth of plants, except algae.

Active substances: substances or micro-organisms, including viruses, having general or specific action against harmful organisms or on plants, parts of plants or plant products.

Quantity: implies kilograms of the active substances sold.

Regulation (EC) No 1185/2009 of the European Parliament and of the Council establishes a common framework for the systematic production of Community statistics on the placing on the market and agricultural use of those pesticides which are plant protection products as defined in Article 2 (a)(i). The statistics shall apply to the annual amounts of pesticides active substances placed on the market in accordance with Annex I and the quantity of active substances shall be aggregated according to the list in Annex III (as amended).

Enterprise placing plant protection products on the market; authorisation holder or holder of parallel trade permits.

All enterprises placing plant protection products on the market; authorisation holders and holders of parallel trade permits.

See sub-concepts below.

The entire territory of the country.

Not applicable

2011-2019

Not applicable for pesticide sales statistics, because it is not based on an index number of time series.

See sub-concepts below.

Not applicable

Annual data on the sales of each commercial product covered by an authorization for the placing on the market of plant protection products is provided by the owners of the authorizations to the competent authority in application of the Royal Decree of 28 February 1994 relating to the approval and authorization of companies manufacturing, importing, exporting or packaging pesticides for agricultural use.

These data are initially used to determine the fee which is due for the placing on the market of pesticides.

Quantities of commercial products (kg of liters) are converted into active substances (kg) using the respective concentration of each product in active substance.

Annually

Manufacturers, importers and exporters of pesticides for agricultural use must  declare each year (to the Federal Public Service for Public Health, Food Chain Safety and the Environment) the quantity by weight or volume of approved pesticides for agricultural use. A declaration form is available online on https://fytoweb.be/fr/formulaires/phytoprotection/la-declaration-de-la-cotisation-annuelle

The reliability of declared quantities of products is controlled for the calculation of the annual fee for the placing on the market. Anormal and missing quantities are controlled with the declaring companies. Additional controls on data quality should be developped such as the verification trends and the comparison of the verification of the accountancy of production import-export remaining strocks volumes. The consistency of aggregates is verified : the total quantity of substances for an aggregate must correspond to the sum of the quantities of each substance which constitutes it. The primary and secondary confidential cells are identified.

The declared quantities of commercial products are converted into quantities of each of the active substance that they contain. For liquids, the quantity of product in liter is multiplied by the corresponding concentrations in g/l, for the solids by the concentrations in %.  The quantities of each active substance (in kg) contained in the different products are  summed up to obtain the quantity of each active substance placed on the market.   A matching is established between the national denominations of active substances and the list of active substance in the reporting table of Eurostat and the corresponding quantities of active substances are transfered into the Eurostat reporting table.  For each class of active substances, the quantities of each active substance that it contains is summed up to obtain the volume of active substance of each class. For each category of products, the quantities of each chemical class that it contains are summed up  to obtain the volume of active substance of the category and for each major group the quanties of each category of products are summed up.

Not applicable for pesticide sales statistics, because the data collection is not based on time series.

Validation process within the FPS Health, Food Chain Safety and Environment (production of data) and within the FPS Economy (dissemination of data).

The reliability of declared quantities of products is controlled for the calculation of the annual fee for the placing on the market. Anormal and missing quantities are controlled with the declaring companies. Additional controls on data quality should be developped such as the verification of trends and the comparison of the verification of the accountancy of production-import-export-remaining strocks volumes.

Consumer and/or Environment Protection Organisations:  quantities of pesticides placed on the market (all categories or specific products/categories) : risk assessments, policy reports; etc.

Belgian Food Safety Agency:  quantities of pesticides placed on the market (all categories or specific products/categories) : to establish priorities in their residue survey programs.

Administrations and Water Companies: (all categories or specific products/categories): Risk assessment and designing water survey programs. 

Market Survey Companies : (all categories or specific products/categories):  Market studies.

Others : univerities, research centers, ...

Reports are regularly produced by data users which contain description of data quality and limitations.

The data collection covers all active substances of plant protection products placed on the national market and the information of all authorisation holders.

100%

See sub-concepts below.

All data are take from controlled administrative sources. These data are complete, thus there is no need to make estimates.

Not applicable for pesticide sales statistics, because the data collection is not based on samples, but covers the whole statistical population of authorisation holders and plant protection products placed on the national market.

Not applicable for pesticide sales statistics, because the data collection is not based on samples, but covers the whole statistical population of authorisation holders and plant protection products placed on the national market.

There is no non-sampling error.

The target population is the population of authorisation holders.

Overcoverage is rather unprobable due to the association between declared data and fees.

Undercoverage should be checked by accountancy controls.

0%

Not applicable for pesticide sales statistics as the data stem from one source.

There is no measurement errors.

There is no non response error.

0%

0%

No processing error (all data are strickly checked because it is the basis for calculating taxes).

No imputation needed.

Not applicable for pesticide sales statistics, because the data collection is not based on estimations.

Not applicable for pesticide sales statistics, because the reported data on plant protection products covers the whole year.

Data are always revised in collaboration with providers. There is no legislation on data revision but a gentlemen agreement with the Belgian federation of the phythopharmaceutical industry (PHYTOFAR). There is no written document covering this agreement but regular meetings between FPS Health, Food Chain Safety and Environment and Phytofar where various subjects are discussed including the exchange of data on pesticides sales. During these meetings, errors or abnormal data are sometimes brought to light. In these cases, contacts are made with the firms to verify their declaration; data are revised if necessary.

In cases where administrative data seem abnormal (for example, when great variation with previous year), providers are contacted again.

The historical data showed that there is no revision.

According to the Regulation (EC) No 1185/2009, the data is published by Eurostat 15 months after the end of the reference year and the national quality report 20 months after the end of the reference year.

Not applicable for pesticide sales statistics as the data and national quality reports are only published once in a final result.

15 months after the end of the reference period for the data;

20 months after the end of the reference period for the national quality report.

According to the Regulation (EC) No 1185/2009, data must be transmitted until 30 December of the year t+1, and national quality reports until 31 March of the year t+2.

There is no delay between the delivery date of data and the target date on which they were scheduled for delivery. We also try to meet the deadlines for the metadata report but post-corrections are sometimes necessary.

Not applicable

Data are collected on a country level (NUTS 0). They are not comparable on a regional level. The geographical comparability between countries is evaluated by Eurostat.

Not applicable, because there are no mirror flows in pesticide sales statistics.

There have been no changes. Data are comparable from 2011.

The old data are reclassified in 2020 to take the methodological changes for the list of actives substances (Annex III revised in February 2017) into consideration.

9

Sales statistics will be compared to the pesticide use statistics. No other reference available so far.

Not applicable for pesticide sales statistics, because the data collection is annual.

Not applicable, because it is not related to national accounts.

The Belgian output is internally consistent.

No news release.

No publications.

Detailed figures since 2011 are available on a dedicated website of the FPS Health, Food Chain Safety and Environment :

https://fytoweb.be/en/plant-protection-products/use/sold-volumes

Not known

In accordance with the decision of the Federal Appeal Commission of 9 March 2009 regarding the access to environmental information, alls sales data by active substance is available on request (mail, paper, web form, ...) from the FPS Health, Food Chain Safety and Environment without conditions. Sales data by commercial product are not communicated and no individual data are available.

None

None

None

Not requested.

Not requested.

All the costs and burdens are for administrative purpose. Additional statistical burden=0.

Confidentiality is provided by an written agreement between the administration (FPS Health, Food Chain Safety and Environment) and Phytofar. This agreement is supported by the Federal Appeal Board for access to environmental informations (opinion delivered on 9 March 2009). This agreement is not published. 

No further comment.