With global spend on agricultural research and development increasing, Europe's share of investment in developing new crop-protection products has fallen by half since the 1980s, while its share of global research and development investment across the agricultural life-sciences sector is less than a quarter of the 1980s figure.
Crop Protection Association chief executive Nick von Westenholz said: "The EU has a hostile regulatory environment for pesticides and genetically modified organisms, and when companies assess the risk involved in committing resources to research and development for new products, they are likely to overlook the EU."
He added: "Coupled with the impact of new hazard-based cut-off criteria in removing current crop-protection tools, European agriculture is facing a crop-protection crunch as more products are being lost than can be replaced."
