"EU drifts away from promise to stop exporting toxic pesticides"

Politics and growing trade tensions have made it even harder for the European Commission to meet its 2020 pledge

A stalled EU pledge to ban toxic pesticide exports faces shifting political winds and rising trade tensions, but pressure is also mounting from South African activists who say they are paying the price. [...]

The encounter highlights a growing controversy over the EU’s failure to follow through on a 2020 pledge to ban exports of hazardous pesticides to third countries.

As reports of health damage mount in countries like South Africa, NGOs and some EU capitals are pressing Brussels to act. But political dynamics, and industry pressure have stalled progress, exposing a widening gap between the EU’s environmental ambitions at home and its practices abroad.

One of the farmers is Colette Solomon, director of the Women on Farms Project, an NGO from Stellenbosch, in the outskirt of Cape Town. Her organisation has been warning for years of the dangers faced by women farmers exposed to harmful pesticides used in South African vineyards, banned in the EU, but exported by European companies to her country.

“We have found traces of these pesticides in the blood of farmworkers and even their children. They cause chronic and irreversible illnesses, and in some cases, death,” she tells the officials.

The activist added that while her group campaigns nationally, Brussels also has a role to play. “The EU must end its racist double standard. The human rights of workers in South Africa are just as important as those of people in the EU,” she says.

Leading by example

In 2020, the European Commission pledged to “lead by example” and ban exports of toxic pesticides to third countries. Since then, no concrete action has been taken. Green NGOs, including the Women on Farms Project, have formed a coalition to press Brussels to deliver. They were the ones who organised the meeting with the Commission officials.

Since 2020, trade tensions have multiplied, and the political scene in Europe has shifted to the right. This makes action at the EU level more challenging. [...]

Still, the EU Vision for Agriculture, a 2025 flagship policy strategy, says the Commission will “assess the issue” of exporting hazardous chemicals banned in the EU.

Some EU countries have also shown their willingness to act. In December 2024, the EU executive received a letter from Denmark, Austria, France, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, and Sweden calling for the introduction of an export ban on hazardous pesticides, Manfredi notes.

As more pesticides are banned within the EU, exports of those chemicals to third countries have risen in recent years, with shipments reaching markets like South Africa but also Canada and the US, an NGO report showed. In 2024, German manufacturers BASF and Alzchem Group were the largest exporters.

In South Africa, protests are mounting. Local activists organised a “Tribunal on Agrotoxins,” attended by Navi Pillay, former UN High Commissioner for Human Rights and judge at the International Criminal Court.

Pillay brought the issue to a public hearing at the EU Parliament’s subcommittee on human rights on Wednesday. She reported that pesticides in South Africa were often sprayed without adequate training, and called for reparations for affected communities, funded by European producers.

Even if momentum for an EU-wide ban is limited, “the door is not closed,” and the Commission is working to reduce harm, Manfredi says. [...]