Insecticide to be banned by France because of adverse effects on bees

France, the European Union’s largest agricultural producer, plans to ban Syngenta AG’s Cruiser insecticide for some uses after the national food- security agency said a study showed adverse effects on honeybees.

“We have a scientific opinion here that changes the data,” Agriculture Minister Stephane Le Foll said at a press conference in Paris after receiving a report from the agency, known as Anses. Syngenta has 15 days to appeal the decision.

Cruiser is used as a seed coating for crops including corn and rapeseed. The agriculture ministry in March asked Anses to examine the pesticide’s approval for use on rapeseed after a study on bee toxicity. The ministry has said it would start a procedure to withdraw approval for the Syngenta product if warranted by new science.

Honeybees fed a non- lethal dose of thiamethoxam, Cruiser’s active ingredient, were about twice as likely as untreated bees to die away from hives, a study led by Mickael Henry of France’s National Institute for Agricultural Research published in the journal, Science, in March showed. That suggested the chemical interfered with the insects’ ability to find their way home.

The study “highlights an adverse effect of a sub-lethal dose of thiamethoxam on the return to the hive of bee foragers,” Anses said on its website yesterday.

Syngenta, the world’s biggest crop-chemicals company, fell 2.2% to 304.20 Swiss francs in Zurich trading yesterday. The stock has gained 11% this year, increasing the Basel, Switzerland-based company’s market value to 28.5bn francs.

Cruiser has been used on millions of hectares of corn and rapeseed in Europe in the past four years without reported incidents of bee mortality, a spokesman for Syngenta, said in March.

— Bloomberg