Illustration of a pesticide application.

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SUPERSTOCK / SIPA

Paraquat, dichloroprene, cyanamide: these pesticides banned in the European Union for their harmfulness are exported by European companies outside the continent, denounce, this Thursday, the organizations Greenpeace UK and Public Eye, which designate in particular the Swiss company Syngenta.

In 2017, European justice banned the herbicide Paraquat, suspected of being linked to Parkinson's disease.

Dichloropropene, used in the cultivation of vegetables, has been banned since 2007 in the European Union, and cyanamide, used in vines and fruit cultivation, since 2008.

81,000 tonnes of banned pesticides sold outside the EU in 2018

Yet more than 81,000 tonnes of these and other banned pesticides were sold outside the EU in 2018, according to Greenpeace UK and Public Eye, who scoured “export notifications” filled out by companies to export these products. substances to countries where they are authorized.

"Every year pesticides banned in the EU because of their proven toxicity are shipped from European soil to countries with weaker regulations," according to the report.

"If the practice is legal and known, the main players in this trade have always been able to maintain their activities behind a veil of opacity, protected by the sacrosanct + business secrecy +", reproach the NGOs.

Destinations Brazil, Ukraine, Morocco, Mexico, South Africa

The countries from which the most banned pesticides in the EU are exported are the UK, largely in the lead, Italy, Germany, the Netherlands, France, Spain and Belgium.

They “cover more than 90% of the volumes” which amounted in 2018 to 81,615 tonnes and relate to 41 pesticides banned in the EU, according to NGOs.

The main destinations are Brazil, Ukraine, Morocco, Mexico and South Africa.

"The health or environmental risks are dramatic," warn the NGOs.

Syngenta, "by far the biggest exporter"

This report refers in particular to the Swiss company Syngenta, "by far the largest exporter of pesticides banned from the EU", but also the German companies Bayer, BASF and Alzchem and the Italian Finchimica.

In France, the French Constitutional Council validated in early 2020 the ban on the production in France and the export of plant protection products containing substances banned by the EU from 2022.

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