Source: European Crop Protection Association

The annual conference, being held in Cyprus, focussed in part on the needs of farmers in southern Europe. Unlike the north, where fungal diseases are encouraged by the cooler, wetter weather, the main problems for Mediterranean farmers come from insects, nematodes and ticks.

Limited options

There are relatively few available options for dealing with such pests. On the current list for re-registration, there are 24 insecticides, but only two nematicides and two aracicides (to control ticks and mites). From an already small base, the loss of even one compound could be very significant. The problem is that these are mainly rather low volume products, of greater importance in southern Europe than in the larger northern European market. The incentive to develop new and improved products is therefore not as great, and the pipeline is simply not producing sufficient potential new active ingredients to replace those at risk.

The high hurdle of re-registration

Re-registration is a long and costly process. Since Directive 91/414 came into force 15 years ago, only 21 insecticides, nematicides and aracicides have been put into Annex I, and there are only half a dozen compounds in the pipeline at present. Applications for 43 compounds are pending, with only 13 of these for new products. Not all will achieve registration and, in the meantime, more than 65% of previously available insecticides have been lost to the European market.

The problem is that all compounds are assessed according to the same very stringent risk criteria, which have become tighter since approval was first granted. While health and safety is of course something which no-one wants to jeopardise, the assessment takes no account of the benefits of using the compounds, nor of the consequences if they are delisted.

The consequences for farmers and trade

Some crops – citrus, water melons etc – can only be grown commercially in Mediterranean climates, so that the whole of Europe is supplied from this region. But southern farmers also dominate fruit and vegetable production in general. Three quarters of the 50 million tonnes of vegetables grown annually in Europe come from Mediterranean countries. For some vegetables – tomatoes and aubergines, for example – the figure is over 90%. Even in the case of types of fruit which we don’t necessarily associate with warmer climates, the south dominates: over three quarters of apples are grown in Spain, Portugal, France, Italy and Greece.

If important insecticides are lost, some crops may be more difficult to grow profitably, and more produce will need to be imported. Already, over five million tonnes of fruit and vegetables are imported annually, and reach consumers across the whole of Europe. Foreign growers already have an advantage in having more plant protection products available to them. Imports are subject to random checks, but if no residues are detected, we never know what treatment was used in the field. Neither do we know what residues there are on produce which escapes testing. As EU regulations tighten, the balance of advantage falls more and more towards imports.

Mutual recognition procedures

It seems important that this situation be addressed rather than continue to drift towards a position where farming in the Mediterranean region is put seriously at risk.. One possibility is for more use to be made of mutual recognition procedures to enable Member States to give emergency approval of delisted products, to bridge the gap until new, safer compounds can be registered. In parallel, if more work is focussed on the areas of concern presented by delisted active ingredients, it may be possible to re-register them in a way which satisfies the needs of farmers and the criteria of the regulatory authorities.