Peru allows farmers to directly import generic agrochemicals

Peru Congress has approved a law that allows farmers to import generic products meanwhile importers say that this law is illegal.

The plenary of Congress unanimously approved, the modification of the legislative Decree number 1059, General Law of agricultural health to allow agricultural unions to resume the direct import of generic agrochemicals, however, this does not halt the fight between importers and farmers.

The President of the Peruvian Hass avocado Growers Association (Prohass), Carlos Zamorano, congratulated on behalf of all farmers the norm that dictates that to import pesticides, farmers must submit, to the National Agricultural Health Service (Senasa), a sworn declaration with: the commercial name of the product to be imported, its active ingredient, the formulator of the product, country of origin, weight, production and expire date, arrival time, type and material of the container.

"It is a very convenient law that demonstrates a commitment to agricultural policy. However, the war for the competitiveness of the sector will not be won until the Government has achieved the suspension and modification of law 436" said Zamorano.

The debate that led to the modification of legislative decree 1059, began when the Peruvian Association of Agrarian Producers Guilds (AGAP) as well as another 14 unions announced that the competitiveness of the sector would be at risk, because nine importers of agrochemicals had used the Decision 436 of the Andean Community of Nations (CAN) to block the Supreme Decree of the Ministry of Agriculture which established the simplified regime AIU (Grower -Importer - User).

Congressman Tomás Zamudio, author of the law that will benefit approximately 3 million farmers, said that such products must be previously evaluated by the Servicio Nacional de Sanidad Agraria (Senasa), which corresponds to this entity to monitor and control these products from import to use in the field.

Imports of chemical products for agricultural use belonging to the categories 1A and 1B are restricted to the conditions laid down in the regulations of Legislative Decree N° 1059, Agrarian health General Law.

This procedure was successfully reported by importers (including Bayer, BASF, Dow Chemical and Syngenta) before the “CAN” (Andean Community of Nations) and the Seventh Civil Chamber of the Supreme Court of Justice of Lima last year, going against the Decision of 436. For this reason, farmers were required to purchase the chemicals from these companies at prices up to 750% more expensive than the international market price. Otherwise, they would have to comply with registered agrochemicals before the “CAN”. That may take three years and cost between 30 thousand to 50 thousand dollars: clearly this was not a viable option, and rather unprofitable ", said Zamorano.

For this reason, Juan Manuel Benites Ramos, Minister of Agriculture and Irrigation, expressed on several occasions their support at the farmers request.

"This new law does not support the demand of the Superior Court of Justice of Lima, because the question was that a decree could not contradict an international agreement that has the status of law. But now both laws will be equal", said Benites from Cusco.

Meanwhile, the importers, through the legal representative of the Union for the Crops Protection of the Chamber of Commerce of Lima (Protec), Rafael Ricci, pointed that “the modification of the General Law of agricultural health is an arbitrariness of the Congress."The approved law is illegal and we will evaluate legal action at national and international level once the law is published. This irresponsibility will allow low quality agrochemicals to enter to the country, endangering the lives of Peruvians and public health", said Ricci.

Also, the representative of Protec insisted that guild does not want to stop exporters from importing generic chemical pesticides directly, but will ask of them, the same requirements required by formal enterprises to import such products.

Importers charge farmers up to 750% of the price

A study of the Ministry of Agriculture and Irrigation (Minagri) found that importers sold agrochemicals to farmers at prices of up to 750% above the international market price.

Buprofezin is used to combat whitefly in citrus. According to Minagri, its generic equal is marketed internationally at $5.40 per kilogram; but in Peru is sold $46 approximately. Other agrochemicals such as Pyriproxyfen, Prochloraz and Pyrimethanil are marketed here at up to 500% more than overseas.

"This and the El Niño phenomenon put at grave risk, our agriculture, as climate change increases the pests", said Zamorano. He said that without the direct import of pesticides, agriculture would have lost markets, because its costs would raise the price of its products with regard to the competition and would leave them with no profit margin.