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About agricultural chemical registration

Registration authorises your product for import, manufacture, sale, or use in New Zealand. It is an approval to market a trade name product.

All registered agricultural chemicals have some conditions on their registration to manage risks. For example, they must be manufactured according to the specifications approved during registration.

How we process applications to register an agricultural chemical

Register an agricultural chemical

To register your agricultural chemical, you need to fill out the application form and send it to us along with the required information outlined in the information requirements document and on the application form

You'll need to provide a completed product data sheet. Follow our guideline for help completing it.

Renew agricultural chemical registration

Use the renewal of registration form if it's an application to renew registration of a product.

Renew ACVM trade name product registration - Form ACVM 1R [DOC, 411 KB] 

Information needed to support for registration application

You may need other documents and information specific to your application, relating to:

  • data protection
  • biosecurity
  • chemistry
  • manufacturing
  • crop safety
  • residues
  • efficacy
  • labelling. 

Find out what you need:

Information requirements: registering an agricultural chemical in New Zealand [PDF, 322 KB]

Agcarm also has a labelling guide for its members.

If your product has an active ingredient that has not been assessed in New Zealand before, a maximum residue level (MRL) may need to be set. We'll do this as part of your application.

Maximum residue levels (MRLs) for agricultural compounds

Consider using an ACVM consultant

If you are unsure how to register your product, consider hiring a consultant to help you. As the regulatory body, the MPI can't provide consultation services through the registration process. Listed consultants are not MPI-endorsed. They nominate their own areas of expertise – check the key at the bottom of the consultants list.

Consultants for agricultural compounds and veterinary medicines (ACVM)  

Data assessment

Before an application can be processed, MPI or a third party assesses all required data. This is generally quicker if you use an independent assessor.

Data assessment reports must be done by an independent assessor. You can't use in-house assessors or assessors related to your company. Your registration consultant can't also be your data assessor.

It is your responsibility to ensure that the person doing the data assessment has appropriate qualifications. If a data assessor is not on our list below, you must include their CV with your application.

Data assessors: MPI list

Templates for data assessment reports are available in our list of agricultural chemicals documents.

Search for agricultural chemical data assessment reports

If you think you may not need to provide some of the required information, read:

Deviation from information specified in the ACVM registration information requirements [DOCX, 799 KB]

Joint reviews

A joint review is where 2 or more regulators work together to assess an application for registration for a pesticide trade name product in their respective jurisdictions. Various regulators have worked together to produce a guidance document that provides more details about a joint review and how a manufacturer can initiate a joint review.

Guidance document: Global joint reviews overview [PDF, 135 KB]

Request a change to an agricultural chemical registration

To make a change to your product registration, you need 2 forms:

Download the relevant form from the list of documents.

Search for registration change form ACVM 6 to ACVM 14

What we charge

MPI business units