21st Meeting of the Expert Working Group on Resistance to Plant Protection Products

Paris, 2026-10-06/08

 

The EPPO Expert Working Group (EWG) on Resistance to Plant Protection Products (PPP) considers all aspects of data requirements for efficacy evaluation of plant protection products in relation to resistance issues to facilitate communication and regulatory data exchange on PPPs between authorities in different countries and between agrochemical companies and authorities. One of its current main tasks is to maintain the EPPO Database on Resistance Cases. A list of members and the Terms of Reference of the EWG are available on the EPPO website.

The EWG met in Paris at EPPO headquarters, on 2026-10-06/08. The meeting was attended by the EPPO Scientific Officers Mr Lucchesi (Chair) and Mr Martínez Pérez, 17 EWG members from 14 EPPO countries, one CropLife Europe representative and the European Herbicide Resistance Action Committee (HRAC) and Fungicide Resistance Action Committee (FRAC) representatives.

EPPO Database on Resistance Cases

 

EPPO Resistance Database

The EWG continued working on the EPPO Database on Resistance Cases . The aim of this database is to share information among the responsible authorities for registration of plant protection products across the EPPO region and between authorities and the agrochemical companies which apply for registration of their products. The database is publicly available since September 2021. All EPPO members countries are invited to appoint an official contact point and provide information about resistance cases in their respective countries to the EPPO Secretariat through this contact point. So far 27 EPPO member countries have nominated a contact point and most of them entered resistance cases in the database.

In addition to the 1386 resistance cases already validated in previous EWG meetings (and visible in the Database for all users), this year the EWG considered 56 new (or updated) cases and 35 of them were validated. The cases validated at the meeting will soon be visible for all users of the Database. The cases which could not be validated at the meeting will need further work or consideration by the countries that proposed them.

 

Resistance issues in the EPPO region

A regular topic on the agenda is the update from Panel members on current and new resistance cases and management strategies. Country presentations were made by Austria, Belgium, Denmark, France, Germany, Greece (online), Ireland, Italy, the Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, Sweden, Switzerland and the United Kingdom. The industry representatives informed the Panel about the new developments and recent activities of the:

  • Fungicide RAC (FRAC)
  • Herbicide RAC (HRAC)
  • Insecticide RAC (IRAC) (online participation)

The EWG also discussed how compliance with the Nagoya Protocol and related access and benefit-sharing (ABS) regulations may affect resistance monitoring. The meeting also reviewed progress in preparing the new draft Standard on generating sensitivity data for resistance monitoring of PPPs.

The EPPO EWG on Resistance to PPP will next meet on 2027-10-05/07 in Piacenza (IT).