New Regulatory Requirement: Soil Disinfection Reporting Moves to Official Database

The Federal Environmental Inspectorate formally switched to a required digital reporting system for all soil disinfection operations as of March 2026. Soil disinfection reporting: Notifications from exporters and operators must now only be submitted via the official Fumigation Database.

With this action, the Royal Decree of May 10, 2023, which has governed fumigation and degassing procedures since early 2024, comes to a close.

Key Requirements for Operators

To remain compliant with Belgian law, professionals in the crop protection sector must adhere to the following:

  • At least 48 hours prior to the start of the job, all soil disinfection duties must be reported.
  • Legacy methods are no longer accepted for notifications. They must be logged at: database-begassingen.be.
  • Scope: All exporters and organizations using soil disinfectants on Belgian soil are subject to these regulations.

Why the Change?

The goal of moving to a centralized database is to simplify supervision between two significant federal agencies:

FPS Health, Food Chain Safety, and Environment (Federal Environmental Inspectorate)

FPS Employment, Labour and Social Dialogue (Supervision of Well-being at Work)

The government hopes to improve transparency and ensure the highest safety standards in high-risk chemical applications by centralizing this data, thereby safeguarding workers and the environment.

Impact

The administrative procedure is now entirely digital, but the technical specifications for soil disinfection are still based on the 2024 norms. The Environmental Inspectorate may take enforcement action if you don’t register with the database.

About the author: Auxilife