ICCO Press Releases

2010

ICCO Manual on Pesticides in Cocoa

Date: 18/04/2010
Category:General

The International Cocoa Organization is pleased to announce the publication of the Second Edition of the Manual on the Safe Use of Pesticides in Cocoa (April 2010). This edition updates the first edition which was released last year in response to the publication by the European Union of a new legislation (Regulation (EC) No. 149/2008 of January 2008) that came into force in September 2008. The Manual also covers pesticides and chemical compounds authorized or banned for use on cocoa in accordance with the relevant regulations in the United States of America and in Japan.

In the first edition of the Manual, pesticides were divided into “positive” and “negative” lists, as related to the new EU legislation. This has proved to be over-simplistic and impossible to maintain in view of the new, wider geographical scope of the Manual. Hence for this and for future editions, Appendix 3 of the Manual has been divided into four categories: a list of strategic/recorded pesticides for use on cocoa, a list of chemical compounds which are to be used with great caution due to their limited time span and their restricted markets, a list of experimental control agents that could be included in a future list of strategic pesticides and, finally, a list of pesticides which must NOT be used on cocoa. The Manual also contains information about weed control and herbicides, the management of cocoa pod borer in South-East Asia, additional advice on personal protection equipment during spraying and a list of institutions in charge of pesticide regulations and crop protection in key cocoa producing countries.

It is the intention of the ICCO Secretariat to monitor developments related to this important issue and to publish any relevant update as and when necessary, and in any case every year, through a new edition of the Manual.

Any comments and observations on the Manual and its contents should be sent to Dr. Roy Bateman, the ICCO Consultant responsible for the Manual. His e-mail address is r.bateman@imperial.ac.uk.

Jan Vingerhoets
Executive Director
International Cocoa Organization
22 April 2010