May/June 2013

WELCOME TO THE MAY 2013 EDITION OF THE SUSTAINABLE SOURCE

Dear Suppliers

I think this is a great edition of The Sustainable Source. Not only does it spotlight the excellent work of our suppliers and their farmers as we adopt more sustainable practices, but it also celebrates the achievement of our collective partnerships in sourcing 36% of our agricul-tural raw materials sustainably. This exceeds the interim milestone of 30% which was set in 2010 when launching the Unilever Sustainable Living Plan.

This shows what a great group of suppliers and farmers we have in our supply chain, and how hard you have been working in the last few years to deliver this progress. We have four case studies in our ‘Meet a Supplier’ section on pages 7-10, showing how sustainable practices can be achieved in a wide range of circumstances. Congratula-tions to everybody involved.

Our latest Control Union article is a round-up of the last two years, written by Gerard Blijleven and Frank van der Velden, who manage the coordination of the consultancy service to Unilever’s suppliers. The article talks about the progress they have made to date, the service they offer and some of the challenges they have been faced with.

On pages 11 and 12 we introduce you to some new support tools to further help you environmental awareness. The first is from DuPont, a web-based pest monitoring system. The second is from Syngenta and highlights the BEST (Bird Environmental Stewardship Tool) which helps you make the best choice of Entry Level Stewardship options on your farm.

We end this issue with what we hope are thought-provoking articles about the environment in which we all work, where both enforced regulations (in the EU) can make it difficult for farmers to adopt more sustainable practices and lack of enforcement (in many countries) results in farmers being defrauded into applying ineffective, dangerous or illegal pesticides to their crops or animals.

I hope that you find this edition of The Sustainable Source useful. For those of you now going into your busiest time of year, we wish you a successful, productive and profitable season.

Kind regards Gail

Gail Smith is in the Sustainable Sourcing Development Team, with particular responsibility for tropical and perennial crops, biodiversity and Natural Capital, and updating the Unilever Sustainable Agriculture Code in line with emerging sustainability issues. She has recently been working with a team to develop e-learning on sustainable sourcing for Unilever procurement colleagues.

CONTENTS3. SUSTAINABLE SOURCING - EXCEEDING OUR TARGETS4. MUDDY BOOTS UPDATE - NEW HELPFUL WEBINARS5/6. YOUR CONTROL UNION - TWO YEARS ON...7. MEET A SUPPLIER - LA CESENATE8. MEET A SUPPLIER - COFCO9. MEET A SUPPLIER - ROYAL EUROMA B.V.10. MEET A SUPPLIER - MARCATUS QED11. BEATING BUGS BRINGS BIG BENEFITS - DUPONT12. BIRD ENVIRONMENTAL STEWARDSHIP TOOL - BEST13. SUSTAINABILITY INDICATOR - CROP PROTECTION14. SUSTAINABILITY INDICATOR - COUNTERFEIT PESTICIDES

SUSTAINABLE SOURCINGEXCEEDING OUR TARGETS

This milestone was made against a backdrop of reporting our annual sales of €51 billion in 2012, demonstrating that we are on the way to realising our vision of doubling the size of the business whilst reducing its environmental footprint and improving its positive social impact.

Marc Engel, Chief Procurement Officer said: “Cli-mate change, water scarcity, unsustainable farming practices, and rising populations all threaten agri-cultural supplies and food security.

Half of the raw materials Unilever buys are from the farming and forestry industries, so ensuring a secure supply of these materials is a major busi-ness issue. However, sustainable sourcing is not only about managing business risks, it also presents an opportunity for growth, allowing brands to stand out in the marketplace.”

One example is how Knorr has supported sustain-able growth for the Foods category. In September 2012 a new soup launched in France became the first Unilever product to promote an ingredient (to-matoes) as sustainably grown in accordance with

the Unilever Sustainable Agriculture Code. This was made possible through the Knorr Sustainability Partnership Fund, which uses €1 million a year to support vegetable suppliers on complex sustainable agriculture projects. This development has boosted shelf standout and competitive differentiation and now Knorr plans to continue to label other products.

For cocoa, 43% was sourced sustainably by the end of 2012. And 64% of cocoa for Magnum was sustain-ably sourced through Rainforest Alliance certifica-tion. To achieve certification, Unilever has been working with supplier Barry Callebaut to run farmer field schools with 20,000 small farmers across West Africa. The schools work with local farmers to build skills and knowledge around sustainable cultivation practices. Then the farmers spread the knowledge through the community. Magnum also shares with its consumers why it works with Rainforest Alliance to source cocoa sustainably: to source high-quality cocoa beans, to increase the income of farmers and deliver social benefits such as improved health and safety practices.

Other examples of progress in sustainable sourcing can be found by visiting: http://www.unilever.com/mediacentre/pressreleases/2013/Unileversources-overthirdofagriculturalrawmaterials.aspx

We are delighted to announce that Unilever is now sourcing 36% of its agricul-tural raw materials sustainably, while continuing to grow the business. This has exceeded the interim milestone of 30% we set ourselves back in 2010 when launching the Unilever Sustainable Living Plan. This is a fantastic achievement, one which we would not have met without the full partnering from suppliers.

MUDDY BOOTS UPDATENEW HELPFUL WEBINARS

We are pleased to be running monthly webinars that are free to all Unilever Quickfire supplier users and recent topics have included a step-by-step run through of how to use Quickfire to complete Unilever assessments, an overview of the reports that are available to suppliers and guidance from Unilever on using the Cool Farm Tool. Recordings are available to all afterwards so even if you are unable to attend you will be able to watch again afterwards. The next webinar is planned for week commencing May 27th and the topic is ‘Getting started with Quickfire’. This webinar will include details of the components of the Quickfire system, the Unilever Quickfire process, how to install PAF Reader, the Unilever Diploma and the document repository. Current users should look out for emails informing them of how to register for this webinar.

We are also now running bi-monthly webinars for Control Union Consultants and other report users. This is enabling us to help them understand how suppliers use Quickfire and also pass on the latest information about any changes. We are working with

Control Union Consultants to provide Quickfire train-ing in a supplier’s native language which is proving very worthwhile and beneficial to suppliers who do not speak English as their first language.

We hope to have some new features becoming available during June 2013 so if you are a current user please look out for emails detailing these new features and how to use them. As always, users can access help with using Quick-fire through the Help area after they have logged in to Quickfire Office.

If you have any questions about training or webinars please contact the Product Adoption Team via productadoption@muddyboots.com. For techni-cal assistance please contact the Support Team via support@muddyboots.com.

Your next Satisfaction Survey will be sent to you in the coming months.

We have had a fantastic few months at Muddy Boots, assessment submis-sions have reached record levels and we’ve had the pleasure of speaking with many suppliers who have recently joined the Muddy Boots platform and have started their sustainability journey with Unilever this year. It’s great to hear that the new functionality and features that we built in to the system at the start of the year are paying dividends, making the process of assessment administration quicker and more intuitive, with further exciting developments coming in 2013.

Emma Tipton, your Product Adoption Manager at Muddy Boots

We have heard from several of you that you would like the Cool Farm Tool to be translated into other languages. Unfortunately this is a longer-term plan, as the pri-ority for the Cool Farm Institute is to get the online version of the tool up and running. However, we have translated the Cool Farm Tool Factsheet that can help farmers understand better which tabs they need to fill in, and some of the tips to make completion easier. This is now available in 9 languages in addition to English. We hope that this will go some way to relieve the problems you are having with language. The translated factsheet can be found in the Quickfire Help area.

COOL FARM TOOLUPDATE

YOUR CONTROL UNIONTWO YEARS ON...

Control Union has been actively involved in supporting Unilever and its suppliers with their sustainable ambitions for more than two years now. Gerard Blijleven and Frank van der Velden, who manage the coordination of the consultancy service to the Unilever suppliers, talk about the Control Union team, the service they offer to their customers and some of the challenges they are faced with.

The journey started at full speed in 2010 when we began consulting raw material suppliers with the implementation of the Unilever Sustainable Agricul-ture Code on a global scale.

Control Union has been selected by Unilever due to our international network of agronomist, our experi-ence in sustainable agricultural supply chains and our connection with the industry. We gained our network and experience initially because of our com-mon activities as an international certification body.

Thanks to our global network we are able to serve local. We are able to provide our service with our local experts, who understand the local circum-stances, language and techniques, to achieve the best results and mutual understanding.

YOUR CONTROL UNION TEAM

The consultancy service is provided to you by our local agronomists (35 in 28 different countries), who are providing the consultancy service by visiting your sites. Together with suppliers a consultancy plan will be made and, depending on your needs and complexity of your supply chain, it will be agreed on which sites we can consult on the implementation of the standard.

As well as explaining to you about the SAC stand-ard and the scheme rules, the service can be varied such as; farmer training, developing manuals for the farmers, supply chain collection, training of your appointed internal assessor, Cool Farm Tool (GHG) calculation, etc.

5 Regional Key Consultants are involved who are working in close cooperation with the local consult-ants. The main services are related to supply chain collection, planning, monitoring the progress and drafting the gap analysis and improvement plan of each individual supplier. The regions are divided into continents or language areas.

Gerard Blijleven

CONTROL UNION HELPDESK

Any question relating to the implementation of the SAC can be sent to unileversac@controlunion.com. We will make sure that your questions will be answered, as an additional support to the service which is offered by our consultants.

OUR CHALLENGES

Since our involvement we have seen great achievements with a lot of suppliers in many countries. We acknowledge that it can be challenging to get direct access to farmers and getting their commitment on sustainable sourcing.

As Control Union, we are fully convinced that sustainable farming brings added value to the crops and all related stakeholders. For that reason we are glad to be connected to you as Unilever supplier, to work together on the challenges of sustainable production in your entire supply chain.

OTHER ACTIVITIES & FURTHER CONTACT

To get more information about our (certification) services, the latest developments, and certification programmes we can offer, please do not hesitate to contact one of our team members directly and to visit our new website: http://certification.controlunion.com/

Last but not least, we are looking forward to meeting you during one of our supplier trainings/meetings or consultancy visits to your sites.

“WE ARE FULLY CONVINCED THAT SUSTAINABLE FARMING BRINGS ADDED VALUE TO THE CROPS & ALL RELATED STAKEHOLDERS”

Frank van der Velden

MEET A SUPPLIERLA CESENATE

La Cesenate Conserve Alimentari S.p.A. processes high quality tomatoes, ripened under the sun of Emilia Romagna in the Mezzano marshy area, set in the Po Delta, known for its peaty salty soil. Our particular goal is quality. This concept has many shades which can be summed in genuine goodness of flavor, sustainability of tomato cultivation and accuracy of processing techniques.

“We think the respect for the environment and sustainable agriculture are essential aspects in the concept of quality food and we are proud to work together with Unilever for this aim.”

Dr. Arturo Santini, president of La Cesenate S.p.A

First of all, the combination of rich peaty soil, windy climate, which limits diseases, with warm and sunny summers, light-salty irrigation water and the prox-imity to the seaside help in obtaining a unique qual-ity of tomato. We also use unique varieties, different from the standard processing tomato ones, selected for their recognised differentiating taste and texture by Unilever during more than thirty years of our sup-ply history.

Our experienced farmers follow the Guidelines for Integrated Production and they are supported in their agronomic decisions by our agronomists.

These Guidelines cover every agronomic aspect, such as fertilisation, pest and disease control, soil and water management, to optimise the efficiency of the factors of production meanwhile taking care of the environmental impact. In particular, we provide to the farmers our list of low-toxicity agrochemicals to be used and we give indications about the choice of the varieties characterised by good organolep-tic properties, high disease resistance, attitude to processing and distinct maturation dates. This allows us to plan the harvest time in order to have the different varieties gradually available during the season and process the tomatoes within 12 hoursfrom the harvest. With the low temperature pasteur-

isation we use, this helps to preserve its flavours, aromas and nutritional properties.

All the farms we source tomato from are located within 80km from our processing facility. This reduc-es transport costs and emissions. In addition, most of those farms are in the Mezzano Valley, a Special Protection Zone next to the Po Delta Regional Park. Both of them are very important wetland nature reserves in Europe, known for their big variety of permanent and migrating bird species including the Eurasian Bittern, the Purple Heron, the Black-crowned Night-heron, the Eurasian Spoonbill, the Western Marsh-harrier and the Moustached War-bler.

Dr. Arturo Santini, president of La Cesenate S.p.A:“In our efforts to improve sustainability, we are try-ing to make our farmers aware of the importance of the environment where they work and the ef-fects their actions could have on it. In particular, we are drawing up with them a programme focused in monitoring the presence of the different bird species in their farms and in the implementation of the ac-tions which can bring a positive effect on them, such as not to mow the grass of the ditches nor cut the branches of the trees during the nesting period.”

In 2011 COFCO Tunhe and Unilever signed a ground breaking Joint Business Development plan which set out the vision for achieving sustainability in tomatoes together. Senior level of endorsement from both sides has enabled the delegation and empowerment of twin teams working together on sustainability implementation.

The Supplier Development team in China and COFCO Tunhe worked together to accelerate sustainability conversion from farm to factory. The work entailed real on-the-ground change management and implementation to achieve com-pliance to all elements of the SAC.

Through the Knorr Fund the smallholder farmers participating in the Unilever and Tunhe supply chain have received focused farmer training through the establishment of Farmer Field Schools. 40 principal farmers have been trained to the level where they are able to continue training other farmers on the elements of the SAC. In total 701 farmers have been trained until now. This will make a total of 3,380 people over 13 different courses of smallholder farmer training.

Specific issues related to the balanced application of fertiliser and the implementation of biodegradable mulching films have also been advanced through

the partnership. This has already proven effective in reducing and appropriately balancing fertiliser dosage while the biodegradable mulching film will have an enormously positive impact in reducing any risks related to soil pollutants.

Dirk-Jan de With, VP Procurement Ingredients and Sustainability, said:“This achievement is a momentous occasion for Unilever and Tunhe, it is a result of the great cooperation between the teams in our companies and is an endorsement of the fact that we have already been recognised externally in China in 2012”.

Dirk-Jan also recalled that at the ‘Sustainability in China Summit’ in Beijing last October, Unilever topped the list of nearly 100 candidates with its sustainable tomato programme, and won the ‘Sus-tainability in China Best Practice award’. Mr. Chen Donxing, Sustainability Leader, COFCO Tunhe, said: “Through working on SAC verification with Unilever, and with the support of Knorr fund to build the field farm schools, Tunhe has really been able to build up a much stronger, healthier relationship among the farmers and the local community. We see this as the foundation for a more sustainable business model.”

MEET A SUPPLIERCOFCO

Chinese Tomato Supplier Tunhe has achieved Unilever Sustainable Agriculture Code (SAC) Verification in the 2012 tomato crop season. This is a significant milestone and has been achieved almost 2 years ahead of schedule. A total of 4 COFCO Tunhe factories and the farmers supplying those factories with tomatoes to produce paste and powder have been verified sustainable.

“We knew that this would be a really difficult challenge with many obstacles coming our way, but with focus and a true one team approach we have managed to deliver a sustainable supply chain that will be an inspiration for other suppliers and businesses in China.”

Changyan Ma, Supplier Development, Sustainability, COFCO

MEET A SUPPLIERROYAL EUROMA B.V.

In February Unilever received the world’s first sustainably sourced black pepper from Royal Euroma B.V. Euroma was one of the founding partners of the Sustainable Spice Initiative (SSI). Founded in 2010, The Sustainable Spices Initia-tive (SSI) aims to transform the mainstream spice industry into a more sustain-able market, thereby securing future sourcing. Unilever joined this consortium in January 2011 and has since worked as a strategic partner. The SSI has select-ed Rainforest Alliance as the collaborator to adapt the Sustainable Agriculture Standard (SAN) to the spices production.

The Euroma black pepper is Rainforest Alliance Certified and is grown in Indonesia on farms that have passed the audit of the very broad and strin-gent SAN. The project was led by our joint venture Q Spicing.

The main sustainability issues in the production of spices are the loss of biodiversity, use of chemicals and pesticides and poor labour conditions, with varying degree and issues depending on type of spice and origin.

During the growth process no pesticides or herbi-cides are used and measures were taken to avoid soil erosion, illegal logging and forest clearing. Next to these measures, safety measures have been in-troduced in order to protect the farmers.

Next to the endeavors in Indonesia, Euroma started additional projects for the development of sustain-able spices in 2012, being black and white pepper in Vietnam and cloves in Madagascar. For 2013 our goal is to continue our sustainability journey with several new projects in India.

Gert Ovinge, International Account Manager at Euroma said: “Within Euroma we are proud to have achieved this milestone, but we know that we cannot take sole credit for this achievement. We would like to thank our partners – Sustainable Trade Initiative (IDH) / Q-Spicing, SSI and Unilever. We are looking forward to creating more valuable changes together in the years to come.”

The Unilever team are now busy with spice suppliers to deliver Sustainable Sourced white pepper, cloves, ginger,garlic, onion, nutmeg and other spices.

“This is a great initiative that supports the sustainable sourcing objectives in our Unilever Sustainable Living Plan.”

Dirk-Jan de With - VP Procurement Ingredients & Sustainability Unilever Picture Source:

Royal Euroma B.V.

MEET A SUPPLIERMARCATUS QED

Unilever buys premium grade gherkins requiring about 20,000 contracted smallholder farmers in one year. Managing such a diverse group of farmers is no easy task. Communication is limited and depend-ent on face-to-face meetings in 3 different local languages. The hundreds of people, on the ground managing each and every farmer, are essential to the success of this supply chain.

“I believe the key to furthering sustainable agri-cultural practises with the farm base will be our cross-functional team of programme managers with expertise in agriculture, food safety, auditing, and sourcing,” says Sona Kalra,Marcatus QED’s Respon-sible Farming Program Lead . “This team has been implementing our eight key strategies,which include collaborating with our partners on campaigns such as: The Safe & Effective Use of Chemicals, Drip Irrigation, Composting, Tree-planting and Waste Management. Our mobile ground team have been instrumental to getting everyone in our value chain onboard with the vision.”

Key to elevating standards has been Marcatus QED’s ‘Training the Trainers’ programme. Over the last year alone, Marcatus QED has held over 15 different training events on a diverse range of technical topics. Training sessions are taught in multiple regions and in the appropriate local language. “Our training sessions have targeted both the agricul-tural managements teams and as well as the most progressive smallholders that we work with,” notes Kalra. “These stakeholders have the influence and capacity required to carry the messages further and create positive change throughout our value chain.”

As part of the programme, Marcatus QED has specially designed a smallholder farmer chemical storage unit that meets international safety require-ments. In collaboration with the Knorr Sustainability Fund, Marcatus is distributing over 4500 of these units directly to smallholders. The initiative also includes personal protective equipment and training manuals that will be distributed to farmers in 2013.

“The Marcatus QED company mission is to seek and develop long-term partnerships for consistent supply. It is because of our long-term partnerships that we have the influence over the value chain required to launch such a full-force sustainability program as the Responsible Farming program.”

Murali Sundar, CEO and PresidentMarcatus QED

Marcatus QED, is a Unilever Partner to Win supplier, supplying high quality, hand-harvested gherkins to brands, Amora and Maille. The majority of these gherkins come from an intricate network of smallholder farmers in South India who grow the crop on small-acre plots, typically only one half of an acre in size. These smallholder farmers are located in remote villages and spread across the rural countryside of Karnataka, Andra Pradesh and Tamil Nadu.

Picture Source: Marcatus QED

BEATING BUGS BRINGS BIG BENEFITSDUPONT

DuPont EvalioTM AgroSystems is a complimentary tool for growers and their advisors that detects problematic insect pests before they reach levels at which damage occurs. The system provides real-time in-season information that helps them choose the most appropriate product for the pests present and the optimum spray timing.

Pest infestations can reduce crop yield and quality, both in-field and during storage resulting in poten-tially significant losses from the farm gate through to the supermarket shelf or processing factory.Evalio, which has been successfully piloted with Unilever growers in tomato crops since 2010, uses a network of insect traps on farms. These capture adult pests as soon as they appear and, importantly, before they start to reproduce. The data from these traps is used to provide early warning messages for growers and their advisers, which are sent by SMS, fax, or email.

Registered users receive a weekly warning report – more frequently during key insect flight periods – and have access to the latest news and updates pub-lished on the dedicated website. This helps users of the service make informed decisions on pesticide choice and application timing.

Giuseppe Ceparano from DuPont who developed the system says that improving the timing of application, and spraying only when problem pests are present, has the potential to reduce the impact on the envi-ronment by reducing both the total number of sprays applied to a crop and CO2 emissions.

“A significant benefit of applying pesticides only when pests are present, rather than on a calendar basis, is that growers can adopt control strategies with improved environmental fit,” adds Mr Ceparano.Evalio was developed over a two-year period work-ing alongside Unilever suppliers, their growers and other companies in five countries as a novel means to secure sustainable productivity alongside Uni-lever’s Sustainable Agriculture Code. It aims to help growers reduce wastage and achieve high quality end products.

Evalio is particularly useful in high value crops such as tomatoes, lettuce, cotton and potatoes where losses due to insect damage can be high.

With more pressure on production and increasing environmental scrutiny of the entire food produc-tion process, a system that maintains or improves the quality of produce and at the same time allows growers to be more targeted in their pest manage-ment programmes and spray at the optimum time to control pests has to be good news. To find out more, visit evalio.dupont.com.

Offering growers a means by which they can improve both quality and yield, reduce in-field waste and potentially reduce the number of insecticide sprays might sound too good to be true. However, the introduction recently of a web-based pest monitoring system by DuPont that provides growers with up to date information on pest populations enabling them to make more informed decisions on what to apply and when for improved control looks like it could provide some very worthwhile financial and environmental benefits.

Picture: Growers using Evalio receive regular, in-season reports helping them make informed decisions on pesticide use.

Picture: High value crops such as tomatoes are monitored regularly during the season and early warnings are produced when insect pests are seen.

MAKE THE ‘BEST’ CHOICE BIRD ENVIRONMENTAL STEWARDSHIP TOOL

BEST has been developed through a Syngenta Research initiative by the University of York and the British Trust for Ornithology (BTO) with support from Natural England and the RSPB. Using a wealth of historical data and current Environmental Steward-ship scheme, BEST quickly assesses the type of farm and which bird species it is most likely to support, based on past records from the local area. The programme can then instantly calculate which Entry Level Stewardship (ELS) habitat options could be included to encourage back missing and declining species of wild birds.

Using the Syngenta website, farmers or advisors can enter a postcode, view a map of their farm, obtain a list of bird species and ELS habitat options to sup-port them. Syngenta Environmental Specialist, Geoff Coates, believes this will be a powerful tool that could provide a lifeline for declining farmland bird populations and help farmers to fulfil stewardship scheme commitments.

“Some farmland bird species have declined alarm-ingly in recent years and changes in habitat and food resources are believed to be significant factors.

“BEST will highlight some of the targeted options to put the missing habitat back with the aim to reverse the declines in farmland birds,” he advised. “We have seen from the successes with Operation Pollinator that, when food sources and habitat for nesting and breeding can be provided, the numbers of farmland bumblebees and pollinating insects can recover incredibly quickly.”

BEST was an idea of Syngenta researcher and orni-thologist, Peter Edwards MBE. He pulled together the team of experts, including the BTO to provide the knowledge about birds’ needs and their distribu-tions. Using this information, the University of York built a model that selected the optimum combination of habitat options for any described farm in any loca-tion in the UK. Habitat options were all up-to-date initiatives approved by Natural England and available under the ELS scheme. Workshops were held with farmers, to guide how BEST should look and be easy to use.

BEST is available free to farmers, growers, agrono-mists and advisors on the Syngenta website Environment Area: www.syngenta.co.uk

Farmland birds are set to benefit from the creation of new habitats specifically targeted at missing or declining species. The Syngenta web-based Bird Environmental Stewardship Tool (BEST) can help farmers to select the most appropriate habitat creation options for their individual farm that can be quickly and effectively restored in designated areas.

SUSTAINABILITY INDICATORCROP PROTECTION FOR SPECIALTY CROPS IS NOT A MINOR ISSUE

Most of us appreciate the fresh produce available to us in our daily life and gener-ally we take their huge variety for granted. Many types of fruits, vegetables and herbs are known as specialty crops and in the business are commonly referred to as “minor crops”. Lukasz Wozniacki, Food & Legal Affairs Manager at the European Crop Protec-tion Association (ECPA) discusses the major issues surrounding these minor crops.

“Minor Crops” face a magnitude of pest problems; no different to the ones that are attacking major crops such as wheat or corn. They require crop protection solutions in order for farmers to manage pest and diseases, to produce high quality products that meet consumer demand. But given the limited size of these markets, speciality crops encounter an increasing lack of economically viable pesticide toolbox to protect them.

In the EU, there is a special provision within the European Regulation (1107/2009) allowing a simplified approval to place crop protection solutions on the market for minor crops. However, today, nearly 3 years after the entry into force of this regulation, little progress has been made on its implementation. This means that in most of the EU 27 countries, there is little protection for them.

We believe that stronger guidance is needed from the EU on the implementation of the provision as well as a central funding for the coordination and development of new uses. The viability of many specialty crops in Europe is negatively impacted because of the lack of crop protection solutions – but central coordination could help in finding new solutions for some of these important uses.

We also see that the EU risks becoming more dependent on imports from countries where the registration of crop protection products is less onerous. This unfairly penalises the whole European food chain and is unnecessary when Europe, given the right support, could meet its own crop demand.

SUSTAINABILITY INDICATORCOUNTERFEIT AND ILLEGAL PLANT PROTECTION PRODUCTS

Pesticides are a high value good and an essential tool for farmers, requiring more than € 200 million of investment ad 10 years of research to develop them until going through a rigorous authorisation before reaching the market. So it is perhaps not a surprise that counterfeit and illegal pesticides busi-ness is booming providing farmers with cheap and uncontrolled products, generating over €1 billion a year in Europe and constituting an estimated 8 to 10 % of the total EU market.

These pesticides are sold untested, unauthorised and neglecting all the requirements ensuring safety for human health, the environment and farmer’s livelihood, with even putting farmers’ production at risk. These products do not constitute only a risk to innovation but also a significant risk for society and the environment.

They enter the EU market primarily via smuggling or under the cover parallel imports and come in vari-ous forms; as active substances, bulk consignment,

or in finished packed goods. The packaging itself can be with basic labels without instructions, or have a well designed copy of the original labelling.

Only through reliable suppliers will the farmer receive controlled products. We strongly encourage farmers to get to know their supplier and avoid buy-ing products from unknown sources.

Fake pesticides need to be tackled at entry: strong cooperation between customs, phytosanitary and law enforcement authorities with industry is crucial. ECPA also calls for effective monitoring and con-trol of the market. Our industry is highly committed to partner and cooperate with relevant authorities and stakeholders to combat counterfeit and illegal pesticides!

For more information please visit:www.illegalpesticides.eu

Doris Schernhammer, Product Safety & CEE Affairs Coordinator at European Crop Protection, talks about the growing issue of counterfeit and illegal pesti-cides which are potentially hazardous to human health, the environment and farmer’s livelihood.

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