On 13 April, 2016, the Ministry of Agriculture of the People’s Republic of China (MOA) held a press conference, to officially respond to the focal issues in the genetically modified organism (GMO) field. “The central government has consistent and clear requirements on GMO work,” stated the official, “That is, bold in research – insistence on independent innovation, cautious in promotion – guarantee in safety, and stringent in administration – persistence in administration based on laws and regulations.”

On 12 April, 2016, Hunan Haili Chemical Industry Co., Ltd. (Hunan Haili) released its private placement pre-proposal, in a move to raise a total of USD87.7 million (incl. costs for share issuing) for the construction of 4 projects, involving heterocycles pesticide and related intermediate industrialisation base, environmental-friendly pesticide production facility, R&D centre and working capital supplement.

In April 2016, Kingenta Ecological Engineering Group Co., Ltd. (Kingenta, one of the largest fertiliser producers in China) signed the Agreement on the Purchase of Shares for Compo Consumer Business with Compo AcquiCo S.à.r.l. (Compo), from which it intends to acquire all shares in Compo’s 24 affiliated companies involved in home gardening business, at <= USD131.1 million. The so called “target group” include COMPO GmbH, COMPO France SAS, COMPO Italia S.r.l. and so on.  

In 2016, Syngenta signed the agreement framework about the science and technology cooperation project regarding scientific use of pesticides, biological diversity and apicultural development, with the Institute of Apicultural Research, Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences (IAR, CAAS). It is aimed at solidifying and expanding the cooperation in fields of scientific use of pesticides and apicultural science.

On 8 April, 2016, on the Seventh Membership Conference of the Jiangsu Crop Protection Industry Association, the Jiangsu Plant Protection and Inspection Station reviewed the occurrence and prevention & control of crop diseases and pests in the province and analyzed the occurrence trend in 2016, predicting that the occurrence of wheat diseases and pests will be serious this year.

Source: ICAMA

On 7 April, 2016, the Ministry of Agriculture of the People’s Republic of China (MOA) held a press conference specifically for the corn structural adjustment and live pig production.

On 5 April, 2016, the Institute for the Control of Agrochemicals, Ministry of Agriculture of China (ICAMA) published the third batch of pesticides to be approved to be registered in China in 2016. It is worth noting that, the technical and formulation of benzobicyclon, a product of SDS Biotech K.K. (SDS), are about to be registered for the first time in China. In detail, the content of the technical is 98% and that of the formulation is 25% SC, which is of low toxicity and used to prevent and control annual weeds for transplanting rice fields by stem and leaf spraying.

According to information from the Institute for the Control of Agrochemicals, Ministry of Agriculture of China (ICAMA), the registration of 95% glyphosate technical submitted by Sinopec Crop Protection India Co., Ltd. (Sinopec Crop Protection India, a subsidiary of Sinochem International Corporation), was approved on the 362^nd meeting of the Central Insecticides Board and Registration Committee (CIBRC). The supplier of the product is Nantong Jiangshan Agrochemical & Chemical Co., Ltd. (Nantong Jiangshan) By then, Sinopec became the second enterprise that had registered glyphoate in India after Monsanto.

On 25 March, 2016, Shenzhen Entry-Exit Inspection and Quarantine Bureau destroyed unqualified bananas imported from the Philippines that are 34.8 tonnes in weight, USD33,000 worth of trade value and packed in 2 containers each in 13.3 meter. This is the first concentrated destruction of such a large amount of imported fruits in a Shenzhen port