Dáil Éireann Debate, Thursday - 9 September 2021
1589. Deputy Holly Cairns asked the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine if he will require fertiliser producers to provide expiry dates and batch numbers on fertiliser products for sale in the State. [42771/21]
Amharc ar fhreagraThe sale of fertiliser and lime in Ireland is regulated by both EU (Regulation (EC) No. 2003/2003) and Irish legislation (Statutory Instrument No. 248/1978). The majority of manufacturers of mineral fertiliser in Ireland market their products in accordance with Regulation (EC) No 2003/2003. This Regulation ensures that fertiliser products are labelled accurately and meet minimum nutrient requirements. However, current EU and National fertiliser regulations do not require batch numbers and expiry dates to be included on fertiliser products labels.
A new EU Fertiliser Products Regulation (FPR) (Regulation (EU) 2019/1009) is coming into effect next year. Under the new FPR, manufacturers will be obliged to ensure that the packaging of EU fertilising products bears a type number or a batch number or any other element to allow their identification.
With regard to the inclusion of expiry dates, there is no requirement to include production or expiry dates for mineral fertiliser products under the FPR. However, the FPR puts in place a conformity assessment system to provide for quality assurance for fertiliser products that are available on the market. This conformity system will ensure that the necessary conformity assessment requirements and procedures have been successfully completed before products are made available and ensures conformity testing of products is performed in a reliable and reproducible manner.
The FPR will also require the Department to continue to carry out market surveillance activities to ensure that fertiliser products being made available on the market comply with the requirements of the Regulation.
