Under continued joint collaboration between the Fruit and Vegetable Growers of Canada (FVGC), Ontario Fruit and Vegetable Growers’ Association (OFVGA), and Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada’s Pest Management Centre (AAFC-PMC), the 23^rd Annual National Pest Management Priority Setting Workshop was held in Gatineau, Québec on March 25 – 26, 2025. Continuing this year was the two-day workshop first introduced in 2024 as opposed to the previous three-day format, which saw entomology, pathology, and weed science priorities elevated over the course of both workshop days. The goal of the workshops was to nominate ‘B’ priorities in all disciplines on Day 1, and to nominate ‘A’ priorities from the ‘B’ list for all disciplines on Day 2.

The meetings brought together a wide range of participants from across North America. Participants included, but were not limited to university and federal researchers, crop extension specialists, private consultants, provincial specialists, provincial minor use coordinators (PMUCs), registrant representatives, Pest Management Regulatory Agency (PMRA) and AAFC-PMC staff, growers, grower organization representatives, and delegates from the US IR-4 project, and Australian Department of Agriculture, Fisheries, and Forestry.

The meetings were held to review the top priorities identified by each of the provinces’ horticultural and ornamental crop industries to establish the top national priorities for the minor and specialty crops sectors. Project priorities resulting from the workshop will guide AAFC-PMC’s field research program for the 2026 season, and support future minor use label expansion submissions to PMRA.

Piloted for the 2025 workshops was the re-introduction of capacity for an ‘A’ Priority Without Solution (APWS) project; projects which screen several potential product solutions prior to selection of one final solution for further supporting data generation. Thus, the goal of this year’s workshop was to nominate 47 ‘A’ priorities for capacity analysis consideration, including ten mainstream and two organic projects per discipline, two APWS projects per discipline, plus five regional selections. Ultimately, a total of 42 projects were elevated to an ‘A’ priority.

The first day of the workshop was focused on ‘B’ nominations, and began with participant introductions, opening remarks from AAFC-PMC’s Associate Director of Research, Development and Technology, Jennifer Ballantine, as well as from Chris Duyvelshoff on behalf of FVGC and OFVGA. Alice Axtell from the US IR-4 program delivered a presentation to attendees, and welcomes were given from AAFC’s Associate Assistant Deputy Minister, Andrew Goldstein, and the PMRA’s Assistant Deputy Minister, Manon Bombardier. The workshop then commenced following a presentation on the Dietary Risk Cup from PMRA’s Section Head, Monica Le. By day’s end, ‘B’ nominations were completed within the targeted range of approximately 100 nominations per discipline and completed slightly ahead of schedule. 

Day 2 focused on ‘A’ nominations and began with similar introductions, then featured an update on the ongoing AAFC-PMC / PMRA drone project from AAFC-PMC’s Acting Entomology Section Head, Martin Trudeau, and then an update on the Australian pesticide regulatory system from Joseph Morrall of the Australia Department of Agriculture, Fisheries, and Forestry.

The ‘A’ project nominations began shortly thereafter. As the workshop progressed through the day, 32 mainstream, two organic, five regional selections, as well as three APWS nominations were selected as ‘A’ priorities shortly after 4:00 p.m., marking the conclusion of the 2025 Priority Setting Workshop.

Continuing from previous years, the capacity analysis process first introduced by PMC in the 2022 Priority Setting Workshop occurred over the course of April-May following the end of this year’s meetings due to the 2025 Federal Election and its associated writ period. This process was implemented to ensure projects can be completed in an efficient, and timely manner in the coming years according to several factors including: staffing and site resources, funding, the number of ongoing projects already underway for a particular crop, crop availability in residue crop zones across Canada, whether a selection would support a crop group registration, selected solution product availability, selected pest pressure, registrant support conditions, new, invasive, or emerging pest status, whether or not the priority was selected as an ‘A’ priority but not taken on in previous years, and ‘category A’ new use project statuses. 

Following this capacity analysis process, a total of 21 projects was selected as final 2025 projects to move forward into 2026, broken into 14 mainstream projects, two organic projects, one APWS and four regional selections. A further six to seven food use projects are expected to be selected as joint projects between the U.S. IR-4 project and AAFC-PMC following the IR-4 Food Use Workshop in September 2025. Projects which were not initially selected through capacity analysis as a final project this spring may still become selected as a joint project this fall should selections align between both organizations, or if the target number of joint projects is unattainable. In total, it is anticipated that 26-30 projects will be undertaken for 2026.  Project capacity for the 2026 workshop is expected to be confirmed in late fall or winter 2025–26.

The following table summarizes the projects agreed upon as ‘A’ priorities for the 2025 workshop. Lines which are bolded indicate projects which will move forward as AAFC-PMC projects in 2026. Lines which are italicized were not selected as part of the capacity analysis process.

Ideally, the projects selected this year will have their data requirements completed and submitted to the PMRA with a target submission timeline of about 2030. Subsequent registration decisions for these submissions are expected from PMRA one to two years following submission.

Table 1: Selected ‘A’ priorities for the 2025 workshop. Lines that are bolded will move forward as PMC projects in 2026 while italicized lines were chosen as an ‘A’ priority but will not move forward at this time.