Greece among several EU exporters of ‘bee killer’

Despite a bloc-wide ban on toxic pesticides that wipe out pollinators, several European Union member-states, including Greece, continue to export more than 10,000 tons of “bee killer” a year, mainly to poorer countries, an investigation by Greenpeace and the Swiss NGO Public Eye has revealed.

Neonicotinoid pesticides were prohibited on EU farms in 2018 and are regarded as a “serious threat” to food security. They are also “devastating the world’s pollinator population” and causing environmental damage “of a magnitude that is still difficult to grasp,” according to an expert cited in the report published by Greenpeace’s Unearthed initiative on Tuesday.

Yet based on data from the European Chemicals Agency, the NGOs found 17 companies involved in the export of banned neonics from the EU. The biggest exporters are Belgium, France, Spain and Germany, with Greece also being found to have exported some 43 tons.