European Firms Export Banned Pesticides to Developing Nations, Report Finds

"Every year, pesticides banned in the EU due to their proven toxicity are shipped from European soil to countries where regulations are weaker," denounce the two NGOs in a report.

According to Greenpeace and Public Eye, regulations on the matter in the recipient countries are weak. This facilitates the leeway of these companies which therefore operate without being worried. Pesticides such as Paraquat, dichloropropene and cyanamide, which are banned in the European Union for their harmfulness, are mentioned as being exported by companies based in Europe outside the continent.

In their report, the two organizations specifically name the Swiss company Syngenta, which is "by far the largest exporter of banned pesticides from the EU". But also the German companies Bayer, BASF and Alzchem and the Italian Finchimica. Yet since 2017, the European Court of Justice has banned the herbicide Paraquat, suspected of being linked to Parkinson’s disease. Dichloropropene, used in vegetable cultivation, has been banned in the European Union since 2007, and cyanamide, used in vineyards and fruit cultivation, since 2008.

"While 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," denounce the NGOs, specifying that it is the United Kingdom (largely in the lead), Italy, Germany, the Netherlands, France, Spain and Belgium that maintain this corrupt trade in 41 pesticides banned in the EU.

Among the countries where these dangerous products are dumped, Morocco, Brazil, Ukraine, Mexico and South Africa are noted, where "the health or environmental risks are dramatic," the NGOs worry.