Regulations

With the national regulations, the Register of Fertilizers Manufacturers has been instituted at the Ministry for Alimentary, Agricultural and Forester Policies (MIPAAF). Such Register assigns a registration number to all the “Manufacturers of fertilizers” that operate in Italy. Moreover a Register of Fertilizers (national) has been introduced and divided into two sections: The “Register of Fertilizers” for conventional fertilizers and the “Register of Fertilizers” for the ones allowed in the organic farming, where the manufacturers enter the products they’re introducing into the market.

It is worth to point out that the manufacturers of fertilizers regularly registered at MIPAAF at the end of 2006 were around 500 companies, and at present has reached to almost 1.200 units with a significant increase of the companies producing specific compounds and producing for the organic farming.

For the fertilizers, the regulation EC 2003/2003 foresees also official analysis methods. Since 1986, for national fertilizers analysis methods have been developed, and they have been adopted through special ministerial decrees.

There are different regulations for the use of waste products and of the by-products of animal origin. The last are ruled, also for their use in the preparation of fertilizers and organic amendments, according to Reg. EC 1069/2009 and to Reg. EU 142/2011.

Organic Farming is integral part of a sustainable farming system. Since the introduction of the European (Reg. EEC 2029/91 later substituted by two regulations Reg. EC 834/2007 and Reg. EC 889/2008) and national Regulations, organic farming has become not only an officially recognized activity, but also an activity that is supported through public funds and ruled by precise directives that govern its different aspects, safeguarding consumers and environment; such directives refer also to the use of fertilizers in the organic farming. They are now regulated by the new Legislative Decree 75/2010, where the annex 13 contains a list of the types of fertilizers present in the national directive allowed in organic farming.

The discussion and communications with the offices of the Ministry to define the path and the procedures for the traceability of the products have been particularly intense and led to the issuing of a circular note. This note wants to be a benchmark for the sector operators and to increase the credibility of all the supply chain, allowing the end consumer to know in a clear and transparent way the origin of the fertilizers and their preparation methods.

Finally a freestanding chapter must be dedicated to Antidumping measures, adopted by the European Union in order to assure a fair and right trade towards the Community and in order to avoid that producers of third Countries apply prices below the real costs of production.