Brazilian orange juice exporters have called on the Ministry of Agriculture to request the US authorities to agree a phase-out of use of carbendazim on oranges destined for export to the country. Orange growers in the Brazilian state of Sao Paulo are already switching fungicide applications away from carbendazim, Brazilian newspaper Globo reports. President of the Ministry-linked chamber of citrus crops, Marco Antônio dos Santos, says that a trend is already under way in which growers are ...

The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has seized imports of orange juice from Brazil and Canada following the detection of the fungicide, carbendazim. The FDA began testing imported juice in January after it was notified by a juice company in late December of the detection of the fungicide, which is not permitted in US juice (Agrow No 632, p 12). By January 27th, the FDA had found at least 10 ppb of carbendazim in 11 shipments of orange juice. Six of the shipments were from Canada and five ...

The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has begun testing orange juice for the fungicide, carbendazim, following the detection of residues in the parts per billion range. The FDA was notified of the detection of the fungicide by a juice company on December 28th. Carbendazim is not registered for use on oranges in the US and there is no import tolerance for crops treated overseas. The presence of residues of carbendazim in orange juice is therefore illegal under the Federal Food, Drug and ...

Brazilian soybean growers are hopeful of a second consecutive year of combating Asian soybean rust (Phakopsora pachyrhizi), newswire Agrolink reports. There had been just 15 incidences of rust by the start of 2012, suggesting that predictions of more widespread incidence were wide of the mark (Agrow No 629, p 17). Last season saw the lowest incidence since 2004/05, and the level of damage was some 70% lower than the previous year. The report attributes the result to the improved use of ...

Chinese agrochemical company Zhejiang Wanlong Chemical's fungicide/bactericide, thiodiazole-copper, has been added to a list of official pesticide replacements for high-toxicity pesticides by China's Ministry of Industry and Information Technology. The Ministry has included a high-toxicity pesticide replacement project as one of its 19 “key raw material industrial technology improvement projects”. China's pesticide replacement project aims to completely eliminate high-toxicity pesticides, and ...

Bayer CropScience has presented its new fungicide from the “new” pyridinyl ethylbenzamide class, fluopyram. It is a broad-spectrum fungicide for the control of several diseases, including grey mould (Botrytis cinerea), powdery mildew, Sclerotinia spp and Monilia spp on more than 70 crops, Bayer says. They include grapevines, table grapes, pome and stone fruit, vegetables, and field crops. The company expects peak annual sales of more than €150 million ($196 million at the current ...

The European Commission has decided on a restricted re-registration period for the fungicides/bactericides, copper compounds, due to ecotoxicological concerns raised in the EU assessment. Copper compounds will be added to Annex I of the EU agrochemical registration Directive (91/414) on December 1st 2009 for a seven-year period, rather than the standard ten-year period. Monitoring programmes will be initiated and application rates may be capped, the Commission says. Copper compounds were in ...

Syngenta has been granted Italian approval for its fungicide, mandipropamid. The company is to market three products based on the active ingredient alone or in combination with others under the brand name, Pergado, for use against downy mildews. Pergado R Pack consists of the suspension concentrate formulation, Pergado SC (mandipropamid 250 g/litre) packaged with a water-dispersible granule formulation copper fungicide, Coprantol. It is for use on grapevines, potatoes, tomatoes, melons, ...