UK exported enough banned bee-killing pesticides last year to cover area bigger than England, investigation reveals

Among the exports were thousands of tonnes of diquat, a weedkiller banned in the UK in 2018 because of the high risk it poses to people living near fields where it is sprayed, which is linked to a rising number of poisonings in southern Brazil. Other shipments of banned pesticides last year included enough of the notorious bee-killing neonicotinoid insecticide thiamethoxam to spray an area bigger than England. The findings come from analysis of documents submitted to the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) by companies when exporting banned chemicals. These were obtained under freedom of information laws by Greenpeace’s investigative journalism unit, Unearthed, and the Swiss NGO Public Eye. Almost all (98%) of the toxic pesticides were shipped by the UK subsidiary of agrochemical giant, Syngenta, which continues to produce banned chemicals at its manufacturing plant in Huddersfield. Loopholes in UK law mean that when a pesticide is banned here because of the dangers it poses, the ban does not extend to its production or export. This leaves companies, such as Syngenta, free to continue manufacturing these products in the UK to be sold overseas. France and Belgium have both introduced bans on the export of banned pesticides and the European Commission also committed to ending the practice of manufacturing banned chemicals for export. However, so far, the UK has never taken any steps to restrict its own cross-border trade in these products, nor made any commitment to doing so. Commenting on the investigation, Greenpeace UK’s chief scientist, Doug Parr, said: “Talk about double standards. The UK has, quite rightly, banned the use of these toxic pesticides due to the dangers they pose to both human health and wildlife. Why then do we think it’s okay to give pesticides giants, like Syngenta, carte blanche to dump this poison on countries with weaker regulations, knowing full well the harm it’s causing? Farmers and nature are being exploited for corporate benefits. “The government must stop this hypocrisy by following in the footsteps of leading European countries and banning production and export of all pesticides that are banned for use on Britain’s farms and fields.”

Syngenta’s UK shipments of diquat last year made up 60% (5,123 tonnes) of the total exports in 2023, making it the UK’s most exported banned pesticide last year. More than half of that total went to Brazil. Prior to Brexit, the UK was the EU’s biggest exporter of banned pesticides, driven almost entirely by shipments by Syngenta of paraquat, a deadly weed killer responsible for tens of thousands of poisoning deaths globally. However, following a wave of new national bans in countries including Brazil, and Syngenta’s decision to pull out of the paraquat market in some other countries, UK paraquat exports have dropped to a quarter of their previous levels. Farmers in Brazil are now using diquat, which is chemically related to paraquat, to replace it. Recent sales of diquat have sky-rocketed in the country, increasing from around 1,400 to 24,000 tonnes - more than 1,600% - between 2019 and 2022. But Unearthed and Public Eye’s investigation found that the Brazilian state of Paraná, which is the country’s biggest diquat user, has also seen a sharp rise in diquat poisonings. Valdemar Postanovicz, a smallholder farmer from southern Brazil, suffered acute poisoning after accidentally absorbing a diquat-based herbicide when working in the fields. Speaking to Unearthed and Public Eye, he said: “All the right side of my body was paralysed. I couldn’t feel my foot and my hand. My mouth twisted to the right.” He added: “It was only one time in my life, but I felt so sick that I never used it again.” The investigation also revealed for the first time that Syngenta is exporting pesticides from the UK containing hundreds of tonnes of the bee-killing neonicotinoid thiamethoxam, which was banned from all outdoor uses in the UK and EU in 2018 because of the dangers it poses to bee colonies. Last year, the Conservative government drew widespread condemnation from environmentalists for granting farmers a repeated “emergency” authorisation to treat sugar beet seeds with this chemical. In the same year, Syngenta exported nearly 400 tonnes of thiamethoxam from the UK - to countries including Côte d'Ivoire, Ukraine and Morocco. Over 1.6 million people so far have signed a Greenpeace petition calling for the new Labour government to stop these emergency authorisations and enforce a total ban on bee-killing pesticides. In addition to following the lead of its European counterparts and banning the manufacturing and export of banned pesticides out of Britain, Greenpeace UK is also calling on the government to end all use of neonicotinoids here in the UK.

For more information read the full story here or contact:

Oliver Classen, Media Director, +41 76 334 42 25, oliver.classen@publiceye.ch 
Carla Hoinkes, Expert Food & Agriculture, +41 44 277 79 04, carla.hoinkes@publiceye.ch