The European Association of Sugar Manufacturers (CEFS), the International Confederation of European Beet Growers (CIBE) and the EU agricultural organisations and cooperatives (Copa-Cogeca) took note on Friday 20 January of the EU Court of Justice’s judgment that, in their view, “interprets Article 53 of the European Regulation on placing of plant protection products on the market in a very restrictive manner, prohibiting the use of seeds coated with banned pesticides – even through the use of national derogations and in emergencies”.
However, beet growers need quick and effective solutions to avoid substantial yield losses caused by outbreaks of serious pests (beet weevils) and/or aphids spreading virus yellows, explains CEFS (see EUROPE 13103/28). Sugar beet research institutes and industry stakeholders are working intensively to find solutions, “but more time is needed and no effective alternatives are available yet”, according to the association.
Marie-Christine Ribera, Director General of CEFS, said that if farmers cannot grow crops because of a lack of plant protection products, sugar production will be unviable. “Factories will close and industrial jobs [be] lost in some of the EU’s most vulnerable rural areas. And Europeans will be dependent on sugar imports from overseas”, she warns.
The French Ministry of Agriculture said on Thursday that it had been engaged for 2 years in a programme to phase out neonicotinoids in beet seeds and to look for alternatives. A national research and innovation plan has been set up to coordinate a major research effort, focused on sugar beet yellows, “to provide alternative solutions to neonicotinoids that can be deployed on the scale of the 400,000-hectare sugar beet crop and that are technically and economically viable by 2024”. (Original version in French by Lionel Changeur)