The UK industry is facing a bill of up to £300 million in the next 15 months to ensure the legality of many of the fruits and vegetables it sells to consumers.
Without investment, UK producers are under serious threat of losing the right to apply chemicals that are critical to their livelihoods. Exports into the UK and Europe from third countries could also be severely restricted.
The EC has set a January 1, 2005 deadline for the publication of temporary maximum residue levels (MRLs) and import tolerances for fresh produce. In the UK, which lags way behind its fellow EU member states on this issue, it is estimated that 5,000 national MRLs need to be set by that date, without taking into account the import tolerances. In the event of no work being done, MRLs and import tolerances would be set at zero.
Most EU states have until now used temporary national MRLs to control pesticide residue levels, over-riding EC MRLs. The UK has chosen not to carry out the testing necessary to establish its own set of national MRLs ñ preferring to transpose EC MRLs into national law. It now stands to lose out when a new tranche of harmonised EC MRLS is created using averages based on existing national data from all member states.
“The issue for us is who is going to do the work of applying for temporary MRLs and import tolerances,” said Doug Henderson, ceo of the FPC. “We have to live with the reduction of actives, but we can't live with a similar reduction of MRLs for horticultural uses ... an effective plan of action must be put in place.”
As a first step, the FPC and Pesticides Safety Directorate (PSD) are asking for information from growers, importers and retailers regarding the actives used on each crop where residues above the LoD occur. This will be used to draw up a list of candidates requiring import tolerances to be set.
• The FPC and PSD have issued a briefing note to explain the EC's review of MRLs. See news on freshinfo.com tomorrow for the full statement.
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