Four departments including the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology issue the "Pesticide Industry Policy"
According to news from the website of the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, in order to implement the requirements of the "Regulations on the Administration of Pesticides" and the "Notice of the State Council on Issuing the Plan for the Adjustment and Revitalization of the Petrochemical Industry," and to standardize and guide the healthy and sustainable development of China's pesticide industry, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, the Ministry of Environmental Protection, the Ministry of Agriculture, and the General Administration of Quality Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine jointly formulated and issued the "Pesticide Industry Policy."
The full text of the policy announcement is as follows:
Pesticide Industry Policy
Pesticides are important agricultural production materials and disaster relief supplies, and play an indispensable role in controlling agricultural pests, ensuring agricultural harvests, improving the quality of agricultural products, ensuring food security, and controlling pests in health, industry and other related fields. After more than half a century of development, China's pesticide production capacity and output have reached the front ranks in the world, not only meeting the needs of domestic agriculture and related fields, but also making China an important global pesticide producer and exporter. However, amid the rapid development of the pesticide industry, problems such as serious duplication of construction, overcapacity, prominent structural contradictions in the industry, and chaotic business order have affected the sustainable development of the pesticide industry.
In order to accelerate the pace of industrial structural adjustment in the pesticide industry, enhance the ability of pesticides to safeguard agricultural production and food security, and guide the sustained and healthy development of the pesticide industry, this policy is hereby formulated in accordance with relevant national laws and regulations.
Chapter One: Policy Objectives
Article 1: Ensure the safety of agricultural production and the ecological environment. Through the formulation and implementation of the policy, improve the ability of pesticides to safeguard the production of grain and other crops, ensure the safety of agricultural production and the quality of agricultural products, ensure the safety of the ecological environment, and promote the sustained and healthy development of the pesticide industry.
Article 2: Control the total volume. Comprehensively weigh domestic and foreign demand, economic benefits and social, resource and environmental considerations, adhere to the principle of timely, moderate and orderly development, curb blind expansion and duplication of construction that pursue partial interests, neglect resource consumption and cause environmental pollution, strictly control the total scale of pesticide production, and shift the development model of the pesticide industry from quantitative expansion to qualitative improvement.
Article 3: Optimize the layout. Promote reasonable positioning and coordinated development of the pesticide industry in each region. Vigorously promote industrial agglomeration, accelerate the concentration of pesticide enterprises in specialized parks or chemical industry clusters, reduce production dispersion, and reduce point-source pollution. By 2015, strive to have pesticide technical material enterprises entering chemical industry concentration zones account for more than 50% of the national total of pesticide technical material enterprises, and by 2020 reach more than 80%.
Article 4: Accelerate organizational structure adjustment. Vigorously promote enterprise mergers and reorganizations and improve industrial concentration; optimize industrial division of labor and collaboration, and promote the establishment of complete industrial chain cooperative relationships led by technical material enterprises. Promote the transformation of the pesticide industry toward intensification, large-scale operation, specialization and distinctive features. By 2015, the number of pesticide enterprises shall be reduced by 30%, and the sales of the top 20 domestic pesticide enterprise groups shall reach more than 50% of total national sales, and by 2020 reach more than 70%.
Article 5: Accelerate the upgrading of process technology and equipment levels. Strictly enforce production access, increase technological transformation efforts, and improve the application level of new technologies and automation in the industry. By 2015, formulation processing and packaging shall all achieve automated control; 70% of the production of bulk technical material products shall achieve automated production control and large-scale equipment, and by 2020 reach more than 90%.
Article 6: Improve enterprise innovation capacity. Further consolidate the innovation foundation, improve the existing pesticide innovation system and mechanisms, strengthen the orientation of intellectual property rights, and promote the transformation of pesticide innovation from being led by the state to a combination of enterprises or industry-university-research cooperation. By 2015, the top ten domestic pesticide enterprises shall establish relatively complete innovation systems and supporting intellectual property management systems, with innovation research and development expenses reaching more than 3% of enterprise sales revenue, and by 2020 reach more than 6%.