European Minor Uses Coordination Facility (MUCF)

Because of the extensive data packages required for authorization to market plant protection products, growers face increasing difficulties in gaining authorization for “minor uses”.  Minor uses of pesticides are uses on niche crops with a high economic value for farmers, but usually of low economic interest for the agro-pesticide industry. This leads to a lack of authorized products on the market for farmers to use on these crops which in turn can lead to illegal uses or to loss of crop production. These crops include most vegetables, fruit, nurseries, flowers, forest trees and some arable crops. It is estimated that overall they represent more than € 70 billion per year, which equates to 22% of the total EU plant production value.

To address this problem in a more coherent way the European Commission (EC) has established the EU Minor Uses Coordination Facility (MUCF). The Facility started as of 1st September 2015 and is hosted by the European and Mediterranean Plant Protection Organisation (EPPO) in Paris.

The mission of the Facility is ’to enable farmers in the EU to produce high quality crops by filling minor uses gaps through efficient collaboration to improve availability of chemical and non-chemical tools within an integrated pest management (IPM) framework’.

Initially, the Coordination Facility was jointly funded by the EU and the governments of France, Germany and the Netherlands. On 15 April 2018 the Grant Agreement with the European Commission expired. Since 15 April 2018 the MUCF is fully depending on voluntary assessed contributions from Member countries (EU Member States, Norway and Switzerland).

The Coordination Facility liaises with all Member States, growers associations and other organizations active internationally in the field of minor uses, such as OECD and IR-4 project. The Coordination Facility stimulates and supports further harmonization e.g. in relation to crop group and pest group definitions and is in the process of developing guidance documents.

The Coordination Facility is maintaining the European Minor Uses Database (EUMUDA) as a key structure to identify minor uses gaps, share information on them and cooperate to find solutions. The launch of the new EUMUDA took place on 28 June 2017.

The Coordination Facility is working on the development of non-chemical and IPM routes to solve minor use problems together with Commodity Expert Groups. In that respect the Coordination Facility will establish a strong link with research networks on IPM (C-IPM ERANET).

Recent News

The 18th Newsletter is available

Read about the last CEGs and HEG and ReEG meetings held in February / March 2023, update on position paper on radish leaves, etc.

Click here to access the 18th Newsletter of the MUCF.

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Meetings

Upcoming Meetings organised by MUCF

CEG Hops 27 November 2023 , BarthHaas Company, Nürnberg, Germany	+
Residue Expert Group Meeting 27 October 2023 , Benaki Institute, Athens, Greece	+
HEG Meeting 27 October 2023 , Benaki Institute, Athens, Greece	+
CEG Ornamentals 26 October 2023 , Benaki Institute, Athens, Greece	+
CEG Seeds 26 October 2023 , Benaki Institute, Athens, Greece	+
CEG Fruits and Vegetables 25 October 2023 , Benaki Institute, Athens, Greece	+
CEG Herbs and Spices 25 October 2023 , Benaki Institute, Athens, Greece	+
CEG Tobacco 25 October 2023 , Benaki Institute, Athens, Greece	+
HEG & CEGs Spring Meetings 23 February to 29 March 2023 , Remote Meeting , Europe	+

Meetings attended by MUCF

25 October 2022 , Basel, Switzerland ABIM 2022	+
18 to 19 October 2022 , Brussels, Belgium EPPO Expert Working Group Extrapolation (A. Martin)	+
17 October to 18 September 2022 , Seehotel Rust, Austria 63. Österreichischen Pflanzenschutztage (B. Edler)	+
16 June 2022 , Paris, France 37th Meeting of the OECD Working Party on Pesticides (WPP)	+
2 to 3 June 2022 , Dijon, France European scientific conference – Towards pesticide-free agriculture	+
20 October 2021 , Basel, Switzerland Annual Biocontrol Industry Meeting ABIM	+
9 to 10 September 2021 , Schifferstadt, Germany Feldtage DLR Rheinpfalz	+

See all our meetings