Many less developed economies in Asia find it increasingly difficult to conform to the Codex Alimentarius – a globally recognized body responsible for setting food safety standards to help in the facilitation of international trade in safe foods – and pesticide MRLs of other trade partners. This is because these MRLs are either not established or are too low to reasonably comply with real-world use patterns. As a result, Asian trade is significantly constrained by rejections due to food safety concerns, including excess MRLs for permitted pesticides; and the presence of prohibited pesticides, quarantine plant pests and food-borne pathogens.

The World Trade Organization SPS Agreement encourages its members to harmonize or base their national measures for food safety on Codex international standards, guidelines and recommendations. Although the participation of Asian nations in the Codex Committee on Pesticide Residues has significantly increased, there is no clear organized effort on how to promote the inclusion of biopesticides into integrated pest management programmes, or how they can be used to mitigate the residues of conventional pesticides that can be problematic for trade.

Integrated pest management approaches have included use of biopesticides to overcome resistance issues and the maintenance of beneficial insects. However, as pesticide residues are primarily determined by the last application, simply including a biopesticide in a rotation is not likely to result in lower residues of conventional products and will not help trade. A purely biopesticide program would result in lower residues but might not be sufficient alone to control pests or be financially viable.

This project is aimed at balancing the advantages of conventional pesticides (which are generally cheaper and more effective) with the advantages of using a biopesticide at the end of the season. This is expected to result in lower residues while sufficiently extending the preharvest interval of conventional pest control products.