EU postpones vote on tillage chemical ban

A BAN on the tillage fungicide chlorothalonil continues to divide EU countries, even after the chemical’s EU authorisation has officially ended.

The European Commission could not find a majority in favour of a ban at a meeting of EU countries’ officials in Brussels last week. A vote has been postponed until at least next month.

The chemical — the main ingredient used in Bravo — came up for re-authorisation at the end of last year. The European Food Safety Agency has found the chemical “very toxic” and says available data “does not permit the conclusion that… any harmful effect on human or animal health can be excluded”.

The Commission has proposed a ban, but Ireland, the UK, Belgium and the Netherlands — the bloc’s major users of the chemical — are lobbying to keep it on the market.

Chlorothalonil is also widely used in the US, with EU sources fearing a ban would damage transatlantic trade relations at an already sensitive time. The EU has been more conservative about approving or extending licences for chemicals, particularly since the row over weedkiller glyphosate broke out in 2015.

Teagasc says banning chlorothalonil would have a devastating impact on the tillage sector, and predicts margins could fall by at least 50pc.

Bravo, a fungicide made by global agri-chemical giant Syngenta, is most commonly used on cereals, tomatoes and potatoes.

It is also produced by USbased Arysta LifeScience.