Investments in research and development for new crop protection products are at risk due to delays and difficulties in the EPA registration process, says Syngenta Crop Protection President Vern Hawkins.

Syngenta and other crop protection companies are spending more time and money than ever to register new products while seeing fewer results, he explains. 

“What we have is an industry that is paying more for less results,” says Hawkins.

The cost to bring a new product to commercialization has soared 64% in the past 20 years, from $184 million in 2006 to $301 million in 2024, reports Jonathan Janis, head of U.S. Crop Protection Regulatory Portfolio for Syngenta. Meanwhile, the average timeline for product development and approval has increased from 9.8 years to 16.3 years. 

“That’s a significant investment in new technologies,” he says. “To not get predictability about when you’ll be able to deliver that (to commercialization), it’s kind of a tough pill to swallow.”

Newly required Endangered Species Act (ESA) assessments alone have added 50% more time to the EPA review process, Janis says. The EPA’s new herbicide strategy also imposes additional mitigation strategies on applicators to minimize drift,...