Majors face fire over fipronil

01 March 2004 00:01  [Source: ICB]

BASF Agro and Bayer CropScience France and their president Emmanuel Butstraen and general manager Franck Garnier respectively have been formally summoned in an investigation over the fipronil pesticide Régent by a French court. The pesticide is accused of being toxic and harmful to the health of humans and animals.

Bayer CropScience owned the pesticide for nine months – from June 2002 to March 2003 – after acquiring Aventis CropScience. It sold it to BASF for EU competition reasons. Bayer indicates that over this period Régent had been ‘duly authorised by the relevant authorities’. It has been asked to pay the court security of €2m and has lodged an appeal against this measure.

In a separate move, agriculture minister Hervé Gaymard suspended the marketing authorisation for agricultural purposes of all crop protection products containing fipronil. This involves six products, including Régent, which all belong to BASF.

Farmers already owning stocks of coated seeds for the spring sowings will be allowed to exhaust them. This measure, said the minister, will apply until the EU safety authority takes position on the matter.

If Régent is banned throughout Europe, BASF would lose sales of €400m from a product it acquired from Bayer for €1bn.

A similar ban threatens Bayer’s Gaucho, which has been accused of killing bees. Its use on sunflower crops was banned in 1999, but it can still be used for maize crops.

The minister indicated that the Gaucho molecule has properties comparable to fipronil and is asking the toxicity commission to give an opinion on the matter.

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