France reverses course on banning insecticide to allow grain exports to North Africa

Wheat being harvested in northern France. As Europe's largest grain producer, France welcomed the lifting of a ban on a pesticide required by some countries on all grain imports. © Pascal Rossignol/Reuters

France will continue to export grain to countries in North Africa after the food safety watchdog agreed to roll back a planned ban of phosphine, an insecticide that certain countries require to be used to treat grain before it is offloaded. The agency also announced a ban on a popular herbicide that the EU suspects is carcinogenic.

Anses, France’s national food safety agency, had initially planned to impose a ban on the use of phosphine on 25 April, because it poses a danger to human health, despite its effectiveness in killing off pest insects in grain.