Herbicide headache but beef ban lifted

The green light for glyphosate from the European Chemicals Agency (ECHA) will create a major political headache for the European Commission.

The report was unequivocal, saying there was no evidence the world’s most widely used weed killer was a potential carcinogen, was capable of causing gene mutation or could have an impact on reproduction.

On that basis the Commission should be able to re-license the product for a full 15 years when the present temporary one-year licence expires. However, the decision was immediately condemned by Greenpeace, which is seeking to rally opposition.

The Commission also faces dealing with a citizen’s petition to ban the product. That will make it difficult for the Commission to take a decision based on science alone.

However, if it fails to do so, it could be open to legal action by the main manufacturers of glyphosate.

Another temporary licence might get around that – but there would be no scientific reason for adopting that approach, now that the product has been cleared.

Chile has become the latest country to lift its ban on the import of European beef. This was imposed over BSE fears.

This is likely to be more of a psychological than commercial success, in that it confirms that global BSE controls are being dismantled.

From an EU perspective, beef exports are booming. Sales were up 18% last year, with Turkey the biggest market, followed by Hong Kong as a gateway to China, Lebanon and Israel.

In the past, before it imposed its import ban, Russia was the biggest market for EU beef.

Imports also rose last year but only by a modest 3%. Brazil accounted for more than 40% of imports, followed by Uruguay and Argentina.

The European Commission has confirmed final figures for its milk production reduction programme of 2016.

The uptake of the scheme was just 80% of the funding available, but it did cut production by more than 850,000 tonnes.

The farm commissioner, Phil Hogan, claims this made the scheme a success and contributed to the recovery in milk prices in the final quarter of 2016.

Critics, however, claim that, thanks to poor milk prices, production was already falling when the scheme came in, meaning farmers were compensated for decisions already made to cut production.

From the depths for prices in 2016, prices have now risen on average across the EU by almost a third.

Picture: Peter Anderson. Chile is the latest country to lift its ban on imports of beef from Europe.