Innovation does not always take the form of an entirely new machine. Sometimes progress comes from a smart application of existing technology. Jos points to a mobile app that allows a machine to be operated remotely during a treatment.

That capability is far from a luxury, he says. “You’re not allowed to be present during treatment. With an app like this, you can operate the machine remotely while still keeping track of what’s happening.” Innovations of this kind, Jos argues, deserve more attention than they currently get.

Fewer products, greater need for innovation
The availability of crop protection and disinfection products is a major topic in the sector. Jos is relatively positive about biocides, saying their availability is currently good.

He also does not see enforcement of authorizations and usage rules as purely a problem. On the contrary, clear enforcement can support a healthy market. “It’s a good thing that checks are done on whether products are actually used as prescribed. That also protects the investments made by authorization holders. Products that don’t work, or are applied incorrectly, ultimately don’t belong on the market.”

The situation is different for crop protection products. The number of available products is shrinking, even as growers and suppliers continue to face the same, and sometimes new, problems.

Jos hopes this trend will eventually spur innovation. “When fewer products are available, companies have to look for other solutions. That can be an incentive to develop greener, more effective alternatives.”

A ten-year innovation process
That, according to Jos, is where the difficulty lies. Developing new products requires major investment, while approval procedures can take an extremely long time.

“A process can sometimes take close to ten years. If you then have to invest maybe a million euros in developing a product, you have to ask whether that’s still economically justified. By the time the product is approved, the market may have changed completely.”

The uncertainty itself is the main problem, Jos says. It’s not just the length of the procedure, but the lack of clarity around timelines that makes investment decisions difficult for companies.

Meanwhile, practice cannot stand still. Growers face diseases, pests, and other challenges every season. When effective solutions disappear, pressure builds to find alternatives, even ones not yet formally available.

‘Starting clean’ is becoming increasingly important
At the same time, Jos sees a positive development in the sector: growers are increasingly motivated to work more cleanly and start a crop cycle genuinely clean.

That starts with propagation material. “Growers are becoming more aware of the risks they face. A disease outbreak can have enormous consequences. With a virus like ToBRFV, the damage and costs can be huge. That’s when prevention suddenly becomes much more important.”

Once an infection has taken hold, options for correcting course during cultivation are limited. As a result, attention is shifting increasingly toward prevention: clean propagation material, hygienic working methods, and limiting the introduction of pathogens.

In greenhouses, for example, screens are being used more often, and stricter hygiene protocols are being introduced for staff, including showers for employees.

The poultry sector as an example
Jos believes horticulture still has much to learn from the poultry sector when it comes to hygiene, where far-reaching protocols have long been standard practice. “In poultry, the threat of viruses and bacteria is constant, so hygiene practices there are much more advanced. Horticulture is heading in that same direction.” Prevention costs money, but an outbreak can be far more expensive. That raises the question of whether growers could insure themselves against certain risks.

The concept is similar to insurance against hail damage, for instance. Such a system could potentially offer a safety net for disease outbreaks. Jos is skeptical, however. “You have to wonder what that kind of insurance would cost if the risk is genuinely high. The premium obviously has to be proportional to the risk. In the poultry sector, funds exist that help with this. It might be worth looking at what horticulture can learn from that.”

Regulations lag behind practice
Another bottleneck is the accessibility of information. European databases, such as ECHA’s, are not always user-friendly for the people who need to work with them in practice, Jos says. The information is often written from a legal perspective, while a grower mainly wants to know: what am I allowed to use, for what purpose, how, and under what conditions? “Information provision is too focused on legal departments and not enough on the grower.”

This is not merely a practical issue, Jos notes. When information is hard to find or difficult to interpret, the risk of misuse increases. That creates a paradox: rules are meant to guarantee safe and responsible use, but when regulation becomes too complex or too slow, it can widen the gap between what is formally permitted and what is considered necessary in practice.

Practice does not wait
Jos sees a clear tension building between regulation, innovation, and daily practice. Manufacturers want to invest in new solutions. Growers need effective products and methods. At the same time, approval procedures remain lengthy and information is not always easy to access.

“Practice sometimes runs ahead of theory and regulation. Users and manufacturers can’t wait indefinitely.” That, Jos says, is an important task for the coming years: the sector must keep investing in both innovation and prevention, but regulation needs to keep pace with that development.

One thing is clear: the need for solutions isn’t diminishing. As the number of available crop protection products declines and the risks of disease outbreaks grow, knowledge, innovation, and hygienic working practices are becoming ever more important. For Jos, the direction is clear: less dependence on chemical products, more focus on prevention and cleaner working methods, and above all, regulation that keeps pace with the reality of horticulture.