Commission bans herbicide for use on potato crops

The European Commission has moved to ban the active substance metribuzin, which is the active ingredient in a herbicide used to kill weeds in potato crops.

The herbicide is currently used for pre- and post-emergence spraying. The active substance is contained in products such as Sencorex and Sencorex Flow.

The approval for use of metribuzin had been due to expire on 15 February 2025.

This week, the Commission decided it would not be renewing its licence on the back of advice from the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA).

It said that given that a decision on its renewal was made ahead of the February expiry date, the ban should apply earlier than this date and its approval will expire shortly.

The EFSA has identified concerns with the product. It concluded that it meets the criteria to be an endocrine disruptor of the function of the thyroid gland for humans and that available studies were not available to exclude that the substance had a high risk to bees.

Alternatives

“The authority evaluated whether metribuzin is necessary to control a serious danger to plant health which cannot be contained by other available means including non-chemical methods,” the Commission said.

“This evaluation included only cases where metribuzin is used to control weeds for pre-emergence and post-emergence herbicide applications.

"The authority concluded that an insufficient number of chemical alternatives were available at the time of assessment for all crops evaluated and therefore that in that regard the derogation is scientifically supported in all crops evaluated.

“The assessment of non-chemical alternatives for the presented uses concluded that a wide range of non-chemical methods are available, despite the fact that these methods might not have the same efficacy as chemical methods or might have economic limitations,” it stated.

Therefore, it said the conditions for a derogation for the continued use of the substance were not fulfilled.

EU member states will be given six months to stop selling herbicides containing the ingredient, with a 12-month grace period for growers to use up stocks of it.

Reaction

The National Union of Potato Producers in France has condemned the move.

It said the herbicide is essential for weed control in potatoes and warned that the move “endangers the future of potato production in France and in Europe”.

“This withdrawal is not an isolated case. It is part of a worrying trend towards abandoning potato crop protection tools,” it stated.