There was "urgency" to act, says the Ministry of Agriculture. To protect beet crops from jaundice, the government plans to allow farmers to use, "under strictly supervised conditions", an insecticide banned since 2018.
The government plans to obtain "a legislative change this fall", introducing a maximum exemption until 2023, as part of a support plan for the sector, the Ministry of Agriculture announced Thursday in a press release. Beet growers have been warning for several weeks about the situation in the sugar industry, which they say is helpless in the face of green aphids, almost inevitably vectors of viral jaundice which causes yields to collapse.
Prohibited in September 2018
The specialized union CGB, affiliated to the FNSEA, had warned that France would not produce this year “600,000 to 800,000 tonnes of sugar” for lack of a solution to viral jaundice. Harvest is expected this fall. Supported by local and national elected officials, the union demanded an exemption to use neonicotinoids to protect seeds. These insecticides, which attack the nervous system of insects, and therefore pollinators such as bees, were banned from all phytosanitary use in September 2018.
The ministry explains that the “legislative modification” envisaged must “allow explicitly, for the 2021 campaign and if necessary the two following campaigns at most”, to derogate from the ban on coating the seeds with the insecticide product, “in strictly supervised conditions ”and“ as do other European countries facing the same difficulties ”.
Leading European sugar producer
A "European regulation authorizes it on the condition that such a measure is necessary because of a danger which cannot be controlled by other reasonable means", it is specified. There was "urgency to act", according to the ministry. “This jaundice crisis weakens the entire sugar sector and creates the risk of a massive abandonment of beet in 2021 by farmers in favor of other crops. However, France is the leading producer of European sugar. The sector concerns 46,000 jobs including 25,000 farmers and 21 sugar factories. "
The Ministry of Agriculture indicates that the measure is part of a more global "action plan", aimed at "securing the plantations, the supply of sugar factories and therefore the maintenance of a strong and competitive sugar industry in France. , while limiting the impact on pollinators ”.
In particular, it plans to mobilize "from 2021 as part of the recovery plan" an additional five million euros to finance the search for "truly effective alternatives" to neonicotinoids, but also to compensate growers who recorded "losses" in 2020. important linked to this beet yellows crisis ”.
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