Endocrine Disruptor Report

A report, commissioned by the AHDB, has highlighted the economic impact EU plans to introduce new criteria to determine endocrine disruptors will have on UK agriculture and horticulture.  In the worst case scenario the total reduction in farmgate value is estimated at £3,003 million or 33% of the farmgate value of crops.

Under the EU Plant Protection Products (PPP) Regulation (1107/2009) there has been a move from a risk to a hazard-based assessment criteria for the approvals of active ingredients in PPPs.  At the same time endocrine disrupting active ingredients (substances that may interfere with hormones) have been classified as hazardous.  But the actual definition of an endocrine disruptor has not been straight forward.  The EU currently has a public consultation open (which closes on 16^th January 2015) on defining criteria for identifying endocrine disruptors.  This can be found at  http://ec.europa.eu/dgs/health_consumer/dgs_consultations/food/consultation_20150116_endocrine-disruptors_en.htm. The worry is that a number of important pesticide active substances will be defined as endocrine disruptors and will no longer be available to the industry.  The report analyses the economic impact on 51 horticultural, arable and forestry crops under three scenarios;

• Scenario 1 – Active substances most likely to be lost; 10 fungicides, 3 herbicides and 4 insecticides.  The total loss to the industry is estimated at £905 million or 10%
• Scenario 2 – Includes scenario 1 plus active substances less likely to be lost unless a strict definition is taken; a further 11 fungicides, 7 herbicides and 2 insecticides.  The total loss to the industry is estimated at £1,567 million or 17%
• Scenario 3 – Includes Scenario 2 plus active substances for which there is insufficient evidence available to determine whether they will be classified as endocrine disruptors, this includes an additional 10 fungicides, 11 herbicides and 8 insecticides.  The total loss to the industry under this scenario is estimated at £3,003 million or 33%.

‘Edible’ horticulture is expected to see the largest losses, followed by ornamental horticulture, other edible (cereals, oilseeds, pulses, potatoes and sugarbeet) and forestry.  The report complements the findings of the study by The Andersons Centre (see https://www.theandersonscentre.co.uk/uploads/EE/Andersons-Final-Report.pdf) in which it identified 87 active ingredients that were potentially under threat in the UK, of which 57 were due to being defined as endocrine disruptors depending on the precise criteria to be used.  The full AHDB report can be found at http://www.ahdb.org.uk/downloads/304064/304001/Endocrine%20Disruptors%20Report%20-%20Final%20181114.pdf