From summer 2022 onwards, fertilizer producers, traders and farmers will be confronted with the EU Fertilizing Products Regulation (FPR), which will radically change the way fertilizers are receiving the CE mark and the labelling requirements provided on the products. In the future, it will be possible to market, within the EU, a very wide range of fertilizing products such as organic fertilizers, organo-mineral fertilizers, growing media or biostimulants – provided that they comply with the environmental and safety requirements of the new legislation.

Under the new legislation specific procedures will have to be followed depending on what the product is made of and under which category it would be put on the market. The 2003/2003 Regulation was regulating only the characteristics of the final product in a very precise way such as nutrient levels. The FPR will be regulating both the end characteristics (contaminants, nutrient levels – though less stringent than today) as well as the input materials contained in every fertilizing product (e.g. REACH registration).

An additional actor in the new FPR will be the Notified Bodies, which are considered as a conformity assessment body officially designated by the national authority to carry out the procedures for conformity assessment within the meaning of the FPR. These notified bodies are not obliged by any binding timeframe for giving their assessment to the requesting manufacturers. There is actually nothing specified in the FPR. But in practice the market will determine the acceptability of timelines. All the Notified Bodies will be listed in a public database on the internet (called NANDO). The market and local competition are both determining the price range as much as the work performed.

The FPR can be downloaded here: FPR 2019/1009

The EU Commission FAQ on the FPR can be downloaded here: FAQ Document

The EU Commission Labelling Guidelines can be downloaded here: Labelling guidelines