Ugandan farm exporters condemn DDT approval
Source: Reuters
KAMPALA, Jan 5 (Reuters) - Ugandan exporters have criticised a government decision to use DDT to fight malaria, saying it could kill the market for farm products to the European Union where the pesticide is banned, local press said on Friday. The government approved the controlled spraying of DDT inside homes on Tuesday as part of a campaign to rid Uganda of the malaria-carrying mosquito, which kills an estimated one million people annually, most of them children in Africa. The state-owned daily New Vision said exporters in Uganda, Africa's second biggest coffee producer and a tea and fresh flower exporter, were worried the EU would start tough screening measures against Ugandan farm products. "We are scared because it will affect our exports to Europe if DDT residues are detected in agricultural products," the paper quoted the head of the Uganda Flower Exporters Association Jacques Schrier as saying. The coffee industry has also warned the use of DDT insecticide could hurt its trade with Europe. The World Health Organisation (WHO) approved the use of DDT to fight malaria last September, 30 years after phasing it out on environmental concerns. Several European countries and the United States banned DDT in the 1970s after environmental groups argued it caused cancer and birth defects and was extremely harmful to wildlife. The EU, one of Uganda's key trading partner taking an annual $30 billion of its agricultural exports, has strict regulations against food imports that contain traces of the toxic chemical. Uganda says it will follow strict WHO guidelines -- only spraying DDT indoors and using a type that sticks firmly to walls to reduce the risk of contaminating the food chain.
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