June 25, 2012

Vietnam bans plant protection drugs containing cypermethrin

By the end of this month, according to the Plant Protection Department, plant protection drugs that contain cypermethrin will be banned in shrimp farming.

Cypermethrin is an antibiotic that causes a widespread disease and destroyed a vast shrimp farming area in the Mekong Delta over the past time. Shrimp farmers use the chemical for shrimp farms.

Thus, the Plant Protection Department will ban producers from making new plant protection drugs using ingredients that contain cypermethrin in an effort to protect shrimp farmers.

Five years after the ban comes into force, the domestic plant protection drug market will likely see no products having cypermethrin, said Hoang Hai, deputy chairman of the Vietnam Pesticide Association (VIPA).

A pesticide brand must be re-registered after coming on the market for five years. If the Plant Protection Department does not grant a registration certificate to a product, its traders will have to eliminate it from their stores.

However, banning the use of cypermethrin does not mean that it will not exist on the market five years later as the antibiotic is also known as a mosquito repellent.

Cypermethrin is also found in mosquito sprays. Therefore, traders can import mosquito repellent and then sell it to farmers to clean up their shrimp farms, said Hai.

"It is impossible to prohibit farmers from using the antibiotic when it is used as a kind of mosquito repellent," he added.