Italian Producers Unlikely to Get Dimethoate Extension Ahead of Harvest

The Italian Ministry of Health has received a request from olive farm­ers to extend the use of dimethoate for the upcom­ing 2021 har­vest.

However, grow­ers and pro­duc­ers fear there is not enough time for the nec­es­sary reviews to take place for the 120-day exten­sion to be granted.

Before it is approved, the request must first be reviewed by the Ministry of Agricultural, Food and Forestry Policies, the National Phytopathological Service and regional ser­vices.

“The ban on the use of dimethoate is already putting the olive farms in the area in cri­sis, pre­cisely because there are no equally effec­tive alter­na­tives,” said Lapo Baldini, the direc­tor of the Tuscan chap­ter of the Italian Confederation of Farmers (CIA).

“Ovicidal prod­ucts, whose prac­ti­cal effec­tive­ness has yet to be demon­strated, are more dif­fi­cult to use than a lar­vi­cide such as dimethoate, which acts in a much wider range,” he added. ​“Copper and kaolin (fungi­cides) are deter­rents to the olive fruit fly but do not solve, as we have already seen, the prob­lem in cases of mas­sive fly attacks.”

Given the tech­ni­cal­i­ties and bureau­cra­cies involved in the process, it is unlikely the farm­ers will have their request granted before the end of September.

By then, it will be too late for olive farm­ers to use dimethoate effec­tively, con­sid­er­ing the sup­ply chain restric­tions.

While the dimethoate ban took effect in 2019, con­cerned European Union mem­ber states applied for an exten­sion for using the pes­ti­cide, which lapsed in October 2020.

With hopes of a new exten­sion dwin­dling, olive farm­ers are hard-pressed for alter­na­tives as they pre­pare for a sea­son of fight­ing the olive fly with­out rely­ing on dimethoate.

Olive farm­ers still can use pes­ti­cides with the active ingre­di­ents of fos­fmet and deltamethrin. The for­mer works as an ovi­ci­dal and par­tially lar­vi­ci­dal prod­uct, while the lat­ter has an adul­ti­ci­dal effect.

The only prob­lem with both of these two active ingre­di­ents is that they tend to have a resid­ual effect on the oil when used within 60 to 90 days of the har­vest. This pre­cludes many extra vir­gin olive oils pro­duced in this period from being exported abroad, specif­i­cally to the United States.

The only other alter­na­tive is using acetamiprid as it has ovi­ci­dal and par­tially lar­vi­cide actions and low resid­u­al­ity. However, its use is lim­ited to two treat­ments annu­ally.

This leaves farm­ers in a tricky posi­tion. It is not advis­able to rely on a lar­vi­ci­dal con­trol method, espe­cially in areas with a high infes­ta­tion, as the olive fly can go through three to four gen­er­a­tions from July to October.

To fight the olive fly men­ace, farm­ers require an adul­ti­cide inter­ven­tion in the first gen­er­a­tion where the infes­ta­tion is low or medium and, when nec­es­sary, fol­low it up with a lar­vi­ci­dal approach.

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