Today, the French Minister of Agriculture, Hervé Gaymard decided to maintain the registration of Bayer CropScience’s seed treatment product Gaucho® (active ingredient imidacloprid) in maize. He announced the creation of observation zones for further multifactor studies.

The decision followed a recommendation of the French Conseil d’Etat to re-evaluate the registration file of the product in October 2002 after interventions of national beekeepers` associations.

Bayer CropScience welcomes this decision which follows the registration committee recommendation. The latter favored the maintenance of the Gaucho registration in maize as long as no proven link is identified between its use and the phenomenon observed by the beekeepers. The availability of treated and untreated areas in the forthcoming years will offer a great opportunity for all parties involved to carefully investigate all factors impacting the observed changes of bee populations in France.

However, Bayer CropScience regrets the decision of the Ministry to prolong the suspension of Gaucho on sunflower. Since its suspension four years ago no study had shown implication of the observed phenomenon.

Bayer CropScience is convinced that further scientific assessments will continue to confirm that there is no link between the observed bee losses and the application of Gaucho as a seed dressing/coating in corn.

In France, Gaucho was registered in 1992 for use as a seed treatment in maize and in 1994 in sunflower. From 1997 onwards, the product was accused of being a cause for the decline in the bee populations in certain regions of France. It was agreed to temporarily suspend the use in sunflower under the precautionary principle (January 1999) and to wait for the results of an ongoing multifactor study agreed upon by all parties involved.

Despite extensive testing in other countries no relationship could be found between the application of Gaucho and reduction in the bee population. Furthermore the suspension in France in sunflower seed treatment in France has not resulted in an improvement of the situation.

With an annual turnover of more than EUR 600 million (2001), imidacloprid is one of the top selling products of Bayer CropScience. Since its launch in 1991, products containing imidacloprid have been granted registrations in about 120 countries and are marketed for over 140 agricultural crops.