Sold volumes
These data were collected by the FPS Health, Food Chain Safety and Environment in pursuance of the royal decree of 24 February 1994 concerning the conservation, marketing and use of pesticides for agricultural purposes. They are treated and spread in accordance with Regulation (EC) No 1185/2009 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 25 November 2009 concerning statistics on pesticides.
The annual data on each commercial product’s sales with a marketing authorisation for plant protection products are declared by the authorisation holders to our service. These data are used to establish the contribution to be paid for marketing plant protection products and to calculate the indicators of the NAPAN scorecard.
Method
The quantities of commercial products (kg or liters) were converted into active substances (kg) using the respective active substance concentration of every product. The indicated sale amounts correspond to the PPP sold in Belgium, excluding all exported products.
These data are filtered according to the 2015 Harmonised Classification of Substances defined by EUROSTAT. This classification is updated every five years. The comparison of sales figures with those of other EU Member States can only be relevant if the same classification is used.
In order to ensure harmonisation with EU Member States, additives, wetting agents, antifoaming agents, adhesives, synergists, safeners and disinfectants have been removed from these statistics. The concentration of copper products is now expressed in relation to the mass of their salts and not as before on the mass of the copper equivalent. This harmonisation was done in March 2021 for all published years.
Confidentiality of the data
The confidentiality of recent data (less than 3 years) is guaranteed by an agreement between the Administration (Federal Public Service for Public Health, Food Chain Safety and Environment) and the Belgian Association of the PPP industry (Phytofar). The data are hidden if less than three suppliers are selling a substance (dissimulation for all aggregation levels following a cascading process). However, in accordance with the decision of the Federal Appeal Commission of 9 March 2009 regarding the access to environmental information, the integral data are available on demand.
Necessary precautions for interpreting these statistics
This publication only features the sale figures. Agricultural use of PPP depends on several factors, among which weather conditions. Exceptionally humid conditions may lead to an increased use of fungicides to fight the higher pressure of mould.
On the other hand, the quantity specified give much less information on the effects of the substances on human, on the fauna or on the environment than the intrinsic toxicological properties. In that respect, a small quantity of a more toxic product can cause more harm than a large quantity of a less toxic product. So, an increase in sales doesn’t necessary mean an increase in effects, and the other way round.
Moreover, the effects on PPP on man, on the fauna and on the environment also depend on the way and of the time it is applied: a product used in a greenhouse will have no effect on birds, a product applied after blossoming will have no direct effect on bees.
For certain active substances authorised for seed treatment, the reported figures do not take into account the quantities that could be imported or imported via treated seeds.
Conditions of use of the data
Any publishing in part of in whole of these statistics will have to mention the Federal Public Service for Public Health, Food Chain Safety and Environment as the source of information. In particular, detailed information may only be reused if complying to the dispositions of the law of 4 May 2016 transposing the Directive 2003/98/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 17 November 2003 on the re-use of public sector information (MB 19 March 2007).
More information
On our website, you can find more information about the risk assessment of plant protection products, including the authorisation procedure and the conditions for their marketing and use, and also on alternatives.
Detailed statistic for each active substance can be obtained upon request.