A Ministry for Regulation review is seeing the government working with importers, manufacturers and regulatory agencies to find improvements.
Agricultural and horticultural products providing protection against pests and disease include new products with improved environmental benefits, involving softer chemicals.
The government wants the approval path balancing product access with managing risks to human health, trade, the environment and animal welfare.
In some cases growers have faced hold-ups of up to five years behind growers from other countries accessing new products.
Federated Farmers arable chairman David Birkett said previous approvals had taken too long for farmers to access agrichemicals and other products already in use in other OECD countries.
"Whatever the review comes up with we want it to put us on a level playing field with other countries so we can have access to the same groups of chemicals. It’s more around making sure the process is robust, but still done in a reasonable timeframe and that way will make sure a lot of these chemicals which aren’t coming to New Zealand at the moment because of the process will actually get into the country and be able to be used by farmers."
He said it had taken four or five years for new products to come through that were being used by United Kingdom growers. "In a lot of countries like Australia or the European Union, it’s more like an 18-month process so it’s costing us years more in time. That might not sound like a lot but when you are competing in a global market and competitors have access to products that you don’t it can make quite a difference."
Fewer delays would assist growers dealing with weed resistance to agrichemicals.
"It’s a bit of a Catch 22 as the more we use the worse the problem gets.
"We want a wide range of groups of chemicals so we can rotate them around and that reduces the frequency which resistance develops. So, by making sure we have these new groups and active types of chemicals coming into the country we can rotate them around which hopefully keeps resistance at bay because chemical resistance is a global problem."
As well as agri-chemicals, the review is also looking at veterinary medicines and new biological products to reduce methane emissions from animals.
Mr Birkett said this had implications for the livestock industry as well as biosecurity because border incursions might need agri-chemicals to manage new pests.
He said it was encouraging the review had begun and new funding was being found.
"To stay competitive on international markets, our farmers and growers need speedy access to safety-approved new products and treatments that can help them lift production and deal with pests, climate change and other challenges."
He said the hold-ups of the past were probably due to under-resourcing and a system being used for individual products instead of looking collectively at a group of chemicals having the same type of effect and considering overseas data.
"Our position would be is if it’s good in Australia and a lot of that data can be transferred over then why wouldn’t we look at that? Obviously we have to make sure we look at New Zealand fauna and flora as well to protect it, but there must be a lot of data which can be transferred over from other countries."
