France to rerun DDT test on Ukrainian wheat import
Date: 16-Dec-02
Country: FRANCE
National cereals office ONIC said last Wednesday that traces of the
banned pesticide DDT had been found in a cargo of 25,000 tonnes of
Ukrainian wheat shipped to Brittany in France last month. Kiev
insisted the chemical was no longer used in Ukraine.
France's largest animal feed maker, Glon-Sanders, the grain's intended
recipient, said in a statement on Saturday the local Morbihan
prefecture in Brittany had ordered fresh tests.
"The sample that is suspected of being contaminated was taken without
witnesses, notice, or documentation," it said.
It added that the parties involved had not been present and the sample
had not been representative of the merchandise.
"Accordingly, the prefecture authorities have ordered official
sampling, in the presence of the parties involved," it said.
Results of the new tests are expected on December 17.
Imports of Ukrainian wheat are a controversial issue in Europe, where
they have undercut domestic prices and taken market share from French
and British grain.
After French authorities announced the presence of DDT
(Dichloro-Diphenyl-Trichloroethane) in the cargo from the Ukrainian
port of Yuzhny, world grain importers went on alert.
The potential impact on Ukrainian exports was increased by reports
that Canada had suspended its purchases after finding grain diseases,
flag smut and dwarf bunt, in three shipments.
Ukraine, which has stepped up its wheat supplies to world markets at a
time when key growers such as Australia, Canada and the United States
are suffering from drought, accused others of scaremongering and trade
protectionism.
"It looks like a policy aimed at excluding Ukraine from the world
grain market," Ivan Martynyuk, head of the Agriculture Ministry's
grain department, told Reuters.
DDT was banned in France in 1987 and controls at animal feed makers in
Europe have been tightened after the dioxin poisoning scandal in
Belgium in 1999 which sparked a global food scare.
The report of the contamination comes as the European Commission
unveiled its plans to curb the rising tide of imports from the Black
Sea region by establishing annual quotas.
France, the EU's premier wheat grower, has remained largely free of
Ukrainian imports - the cargo allegedly containing the DDT was only
the second ever to arrive in France.
