French Rapeseed Farmers Losing War on Bugs After Pesticide Ban

(Bloomberg) -- French farmers are getting so tired of beetles chomping on their rapeseed that some of them may decide to further shy away from the crop.

On top of last year’s drought that curbed French plantings to a 14-year low, bug attacks have become harder to fight amid a ban on certain pesticides. The situation has become so bad that 35% to 40% of this year’s crop will be lost in the Burgundy region in east-central France, said Francois Farges, deputy director at Cerevia, a union of cooperatives.

Rapeseed farmers in France, which vies with Germany as the European Union’s top producer, are facing bigger challenges in protecting crops from pests after an EU ban on neonicotinoids, insecticides linked to harming bees. If an adequate alternative solution isn’t found, growers will shy away from the crop in future, according to Vivescia, one of France’s top cooperatives.

“In some areas around Dijon, where rapeseed has been sown for years, they have more and more problems with insects,” Vivescia Chairman Christoph Bueren said in a phone interview earlier this month. “This could be a long-term threat if we don’t find new pesticides.”

The EU banned some neonicotinoids in 2013 for use on rapeseed, sunflowers and corn, and last year widened restrictions to usage everywhere except greenhouses, expanding the impact to crops like sugar beet. Companies that make the pesticides, which include Bayer AG and Syngenta AG, have said the restrictions aren’t warranted.

Falling Output

The rapeseed woes aren’t confined to France. Agricultural cooperatives group DRV expects the smallest German harvest since 1998 and the European Commission forecasts the bloc’s output to fall 6.4% this year to 18.74 million tons. That means the EU will need large imports this year, seeking supplies mostly from Ukraine and Canada, Michel Portier, who heads French farm consultant Agritel, said this month.

Europe’s shrinking crop has helped support prices, with futures in Paris up about 5% from a low in early March to 367.50 euros ($418) a ton.

Growers in Vivescia’s area have lost 20% to 50% of their rapeseed fields, and many have replaced the crop with spring barley this season, Bueren said. In the long term, farmers who rotate between wheat, winter barley and rapeseed will try to add a fourth crop, he said.

“The trend would be to introduce more crops into the rotation,” said Philippe Heusele, president of lobby group France Export Cereales and general secretary of the French wheat growers association AGPB. “When you have three, you’re more endangered in a way and more exposed to this type of problem.”

To contact the reporters on this story: Isis Almeida in Chicago at ialmeida3@bloomberg.net;Megan Durisin in London at mdurisin1@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Tina Davis at tinadavis@bloomberg.net, Nicholas Larkin, Liezel Hill

©2019 Bloomberg L.P.