A blow to the farmers who produce sugar beets and use the herbicide from the company Adama.
Two batches of this product called “Marquis” were deemed “non-compliant due to the presence, at varying rates, of three active substances banned in the European Union,” the ministry said in a note on Friday.
Some 500,000 tonnes of sugar beets will have to be destroyed, said Cyril Cogniard, president of the General Confederation of Beet Planters (CGB) Champagne Bourgogne. This estimate, which corresponds to around 1.5% of national production, is not confirmed by the ministry. Still according to the latter, the list of users of the Marquis amounts to date to 273 planters, located in Hauts-de-France and Grand-Est.
"After jaundice, frost is a hard blow for planters, but they understand that the precautionary principle is applied," said Cyril Cogniard.
The ministry explains to have "made the choice of the precaution", by ordering the destruction of the plots treated with these two batches of Marquis, "because of a consumer risk not excluded" by the ANSES, the national agency of the security sanitary.
"The consumer is 100% protected, but the farmer is 100% affected, he must destroy everything without knowing if he will be compensated," he said.
Planters are currently receiving letters from the ministry informing them of its decision.
According to Cyril Coignard, some 5,000 ha are concerned, in the Marne, the Ardennes, Aube and Aisne.
Packaging errors
The "phytotoxicity" (toxicity of a chemical substance for the growth of plants) reported at the end of May and end of June to the Ministry of Agriculture in the herbicide "would be linked to errors during the stages of formulation and packaging of the products carried out. in the factories of the company Adama in Israel ”. Investigations are underway “to find out the origin of this cross-contamination during the manufacturing process”.
Discussions with the company Adama are underway to find an "amicable agreement", continues Cyril Coignard. Adama "made a mistake, the farmers were victims of it, they must be compensated quickly", he continued, also evoking the possibility of legal actions. Some farmers had noticed that their beets were "held back in their growth", but for "most, it was not visible".
