EU Countries Voted to Ban Chlorpyrifos and Chlorpyrifos-methyl

IMPORTANT

In response to the statement released by European Food Safety Authority which elaborated that pesticide chlorpyrifos does not meet the approval criteria applicable to human health following some concerns on the epidemiological evidence related to developmental neurological outcomes in children as well as the absence of toxicological reference values, the EU countries had voted to ban pesticide containing active substance chlorpyrifos entirely from European Markets. This historical move took place in a meeting of the standing committee on plants, animals, food and feed (SCOPAFF) on 6 December 2019.

Soon after the meeting of the standing committee on plants, animals, food and feed (SCOPAFF) on 6 December 2019, European Union Commission sent out notification documents to the World Trade Organization (WTO) on 12 December 2019 which then recorded as WTO Notification No. G/SPS/N/EU/360.
The WTO Notification contained the draft Commission Regulation (EU) amending Annexes II and V to Regulation (EC) No. 396/2005 of the European Parliament and of the Council as regards maximum residue levels (MRLs) for chlorpyrifos and chlorpyrifos-methyl in or on certain product.
The proposed draft of the Commission Regulation (EU) which regulated that the MRLs for chlorpyrifos and chlorpyrifos-methyl on all product be lowered.

Furthermore, following the voting to ban chlorpyrifos and the sending of notification to WTO, European Union Commission through its official journal of the European Union dated 13 January 2020 published Commission Implementing Regulation EU 2020/17 and EU 2020/18 stipulating the non-renewal of the approval of the active substance chlorpyrifos and chlorpyrifos-methyl respectively.What's Next for Chlorpyrifos and Chlorpyrifos-methyl in Europe
With Commission Implementation Regulation EU 2020/17 and EU 2020/18 which came into force on 16 January 2020, European countries were required to withdraw authorisations for pesticide containing chlorpyrifos and chlorpyrifos-methyl by 16 February 2020 with grace period permitted until 16 April 2020.
In addition the Standing Committee on Plants, Animals, Food and Feed section Phytopharmaceutical - Residues is scheduled to convene on a meeting during 17 - 18 February 2020 in which one of the agenda of discussion is exchange of views and possible opinion of the Committee on a draft Commission Regulation EU amending Annexes II and V to Regulation (EC) No. 396/2005 of the European Parliament and of the Council as regards maximum residue levels for chlorpyrifos and chlorpyrifos-methyl in and on certain products.
Upon the adoption of the aforementioned draft Commission Regulation, the maximum residue levels of all product for active substance chlorpyrifos and chlorpyrifos-methyl will be lowered to 0.01 mg/kg and would come into force in October 2020.
With the new MRLs coming into force in October 2020, the downstream stakeholders of agricultural industry including the spice industry would take a significant blow. As for spice the cycle of farming, harvesting, exporting and trading would at least take a total of three years, farmers would not only lose a significant tool in managing destructive pests which could diminish their ability in obtaining sufficient yield, they would also be unable to export product containing residues to the EU which in worst case scenario would last for the next 2-3 years taking into account the cycle of industry. Furthermore, in regards of pepper, the new MRLs would give another blow to the ongoing downtrend of pepper price as farmer have to start finding other biological pesticide to replace chlorpyrifos at probably much higher cost in order to keep yielding the same amount.

The stream of commerce would take a massive hit, as the significantly short transitional period for such widely used pesticide would mean that all of already manufactured products as well as currently on store shelves were rendered out of compliance with the new MRL requirement and needed to be destroyed. Thus, resulting to a serious financial drawback of the pepper commerce industry.

Furthermore, with the implementation of the new MRLs in October 2020, it would mean a significant disruption of spices supply to the European Countries in particular pepper as most pepper producing countries like Indonesia, Viet Nam and Brazil which supply most of European Countries pepper need, are currently still regulated chlorpyrifos and chlorpyrifos-methyl for agricultural use. With the prospect of consignment being turned down to enter EU due to residue of chlorpyrifos, scarcity of pepper stock in the European Countries is imminent.




THIS INFORMATION PROVIDED BY IPC MARKET REVIEW JANUARY 2020