Chinese agrochemical industry representatives have condemned lax regulation for illegal sales of the banned insecticide, isocarbophos. Traces of the insecticide were found on cowpeas grown in China’s Hainan province, and sold in several provinces across the country earlier this month, reports the national newspaper, the China Daily. Isocarbophos was banned in Hainan in 2004, but it can still be purchased illegally in remote regions of the province, the paper adds. The industry warns that a ...

Spain has granted an exceptional use authorisation for the fumigant, 1,3-dichloropropene (1,3-D), a farmer association from the major vegetable producing region, Almeria, says. The approval runs for 120 days until June 30th and is for use on grapevines, vegetables, strawberries, tobacco and cut flowers. The active ingredient gained a 120-day registration in Spain last year. The European Commission declined to re-register 1,3-D in 2006 and set a phase-out date for March 20th 2009. However, it ...

The Spanish regional government of Murcia has declared the region free of unregistered pesticides. The director general of its agrarian modernisation office, Angel Garcia Lidón, presented findings of a 2009 survey across the region. “No sample threw up residue results above EU maximum reside limits,” the director notes. Over 300 samples were taken in the study. “There has been no health alert activated in the province for a decade,” he adds. The crop protection association, the Aepla, has run a ...

Monsanto has marked the completion of a $200 million expansion to its US Roundup (glyphosate) herbicide manufacturing plant in Luling, Louisiana. The near two-year project began in April 2008 (Agrow No 541, p 1). The process improvements were aimed at increasing production capacity by 20% and reducing emissions. All of the Roundup sold in the US is produced at Luling or at Monsanto’s plant in Muscatine, Iowa, the company points out.

A US judge has postponed his decision on a request for an injunction on the planting of Monsanto/KWS Saat’s genetically modified glyphosate-tolerant Roundup Ready sugar beet. After a March 5th hearing on the injunction request, Judge Jeffrey White of the US District Court for the Northern District of California took the matter under “advisement” and will issue his decision at some future date. In September 2009, the Court ruled against the USDA’s deregulation of Roundup Ready sugar beet and ...

The Brazilian toxicology authorities have impounded “over” 800,000 litres of non-compliant pesticides of BASF . The company’s largest-selling pesticide in the country, the fungicide, Opera (epoxiconazole + pyraclostrobin), is among six impounded products. The products can neither be produced nor sold for 90 days, the agency says. The company can be fined R$1.5 million ($840,000 at the current rate) and suffer the cancellation of the relevant products’ toxicology evaluation reports if the ...

Guatemala has issued a new pesticide registration law, Decree 05 2010, committing itself to upholding intellectual property rights. The Decree covers procedural rules for approval of crop protection active ingredients and formulated products. The Decree has been welcomed by the industry. “The law is a big improvement on the previous and will improve the registration system in Guatemala,” national agrochemical industry association, the Agrequima, executive director Julio Ruano told Agrow. “It is ...

Chinese agrochemical industry representatives have condemned lax regulation for illegal sales of the banned insecticide, isocarbophos. Traces of the insecticide were found on cowpeas grown in China’s Hainan province, and sold in several provinces across the country earlier this month, reports the national newspaper, the China Daily. Isocarbophos was banned in Hainan in 2004, but it can still be purchased illegally in remote regions of the province, the paper adds. The industry warns that a ...

Shenzhen-based Chinese agrochemical company Noposion Agrochemicals is planning to acquire the Chinese company, Fujian Sinodashing Bio-Tech, for Yuan 44.5 million ($6.5 million), according to Chinese media reports. Fujian Sinodashing Bio-Tech is a key pesticide manufacturer designated by the Chinese National Development and Reform Commission. A series of pesticide business acquisitions drove growth for Noposion in 2009 (Agrow No 583, p 23).

The Australian industry association, CropLife Australia, has welcomed comments by Agriculture Minister Tony Burke that the Australian Pesticides and Veterinary Medicines Authority (APVMA) requires fundamental reform. Speaking at the ABARE Outlook conference in Canberra this month, Mr Burke called for “greater efficiency” from the APVMA. “I don’t believe for a minute that the current framework under which the APVMA is operating is the ideal landing point,” Mr Burke said. Various options for ...

The Australian Pesticides and Veterinary Medicines Authority (APVMA) requires applicants to nominate a spray droplet size category for use on pesticide labels as part of its new spray drift risk policy. There are six categories ranging from “very fine” to “extremely course”. Applicants are advised to select the largest droplet size category consistent with product efficacy. In the event of no-spray zones being required, they would be larger for smaller droplet sizes, the APVMA notes. In ...

EU imports of the herbicide, glyphosate, from China will remain free of anti-dumping duties for another year, says the European Commission. It has gone ahead with its proposed action on the basis that imports are at low levels and the European industry remains in a good financial position (Agrow No 585, p 10). The original 29.9% duty was suspended in May 2009 for nine months and the suspension has now been extended for one year. The Commission analysed imports before and after the suspension ...

Sumitomo Chemical has expanded annual production capacity of its permethrin insecticide-impregnated Olyset Net mosquito nets at a contract manufacturer in Vietnam. Capacity has been increased by 5.5 million to reach 17.5 million nets. Sumitomo plans to increase global annual capacity to 60 million nets by the middle of 2010, with 29 million nets in Tanzania, 19 million in Vietnam and 12 million in China.

The average cost of discovering, developing and registering a new crop protection product rose by 39% to $256 million between 2000 and 2005-08, according to a study by UK consultancy company Phillips McDougall. That followed the 21% increase to $184 million between 1995 and 2000 found in an earlier study (Agrow No 424, p 14). Both assessments were commissioned by the industry associations, CropLife America and the European Crop Protection Association. The 1995 and 2000 analyses were based on ...

Brazil narrowly surpassed Argentina as the second-largest grower of genetically modified crops after the US in 2009, according to the International Service for the Acquisition of Agri-biotech Applications (ISAAA). That was due to a 35.4% increase in GM crop plantings in Brazil to 21.4 million ha. The 5.6 million ha increase was the largest in the world last year, the ISAAA points out. Plantings of herbicide-tolerant soybeans rose by 14.1% to 16.2 million ha, representing an adoption rate of 71% ...