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Following a ban on the use of the insec­ti­cide dimethoate in France, French olive grow­ers are con­cerned about the risk of dam­age to olive trees by the olive fruit fly, and increas­ing pro­duc­tion costs.

In February, the French min­istry of agri­cul­ture announced a ban on the use of dimethoate due to health risks, a mea­sure that has also been taken by the gov­ern­ments of Spain and Italy. After France called for an EU-wide ban of the insec­ti­cide, the European Commission requested the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) to con­duct a risk assess­ment study on dimethoate. The results of the EFSA study pub­lished on April 12 con­cluded that, based on the lim­ited infor­ma­tion avail­able, ​“the data are not suf­fi­cient to clearly exclude a con­sumer health risk,” and called for a com­pre­hen­sive review of max­i­mum residue lev­els.

Dimethoate is used on a vari­ety of crops, includ­ing olives, to com­bat the Drosophila Suzukii fruit fly. Since the ban, atten­tion has been focussed on the effects on the cherry crop. On April 21, the min­istry of agri­cul­ture announced an embargo on the sale in France of cher­ries from coun­tries where the use of the insec­ti­cide is per­mit­ted.

French farm­ers insist that alter­na­tives to dimethoate are not viable or too expen­sive, and fear that their liveli­hoods are threat­ened while con­sumers face higher prices.

Following con­cerns voiced by cherry grow­ers, French olive grow­ers are also wor­ried about the effects of the ban on their own crop and fear that it could only be a mat­ter of weeks before their trees could be rav­aged by the olive fruit fly. In response to the ban on the sale of cher­ries from coun­tries still using dimethoate, they have asked the min­istry of agri­cul­ture to include in the ban the sale of for­eign olive oil and olives treated with the insec­ti­cide.

Representing the union of olive grow­ers of Roussillon, its pres­i­dent Gennaro de Benedittis, told France Bleu Radio that other prod­ucts used to com­bat the fruit fly are much more expen­sive. As a result, the already large price dif­fer­ence between olive oil pro­duced in France and in Spain will increase dra­mat­i­cally. ​“We can’t increase our prices, because if prices go up fur­ther, the aver­age con­sumer will not buy our oil,” he con­cluded.

• France Bleu Radio


• European Food Safety Authority


• French Ministry of Agriculture