EU approves Bayer CropScience's fungicide penflufen

Date:10-29-2013

The European Commission has proposed to approve Bayer CropScience’s fungicide penflufen as potato seed treatment, under the EU plant protection regulation(1107/2009). It will be formally included in Annex I on Feb 1, 2014 and will expire on Jan 31, 2024.

The Commission requires that member states shall pay particular attention to the protection of operators and the protection of groundwater, when the substance is applied in regions with vulnerable soil and/or climatic conditions.

In addition, the applicant is required to submit confirmatory information as regards the long term risk to birds before 30 September 2015 and the relevance of the metabolite M01 (penflufen-3-hydroxy-butyl) for groundwater if penflufen is classified under Regulation (EC) No 1272/2008 of the European Parliament and of the Council (2 ) as ‘carcinogen category2’ within six months from the notification of the classification decision.

Bayer CropScience gained its first registration approval for penflufen as Emesto in the UK in 2011. The active ingredient has been approved in many countries such as US, Canada and Australia.