Regulatory Wrap Up

Regulatory Wrap Up. I’m Greg Martin with today’s Fruit Grower Report.

We have been hearing from the NW Hort Council’s Mike Willett speaking at the Washington State Horticulture Associations annual convention on various regulatory issues growers might face this year. MRL issues on morpholine and ethoxyquin plus there is European Commission’s as yet decision on whether to drop MRL levels on DPA or Diphenylamine

WILLETT: On the chemical issues this is a work in progress. On the DPA, we’re continually trying to work with the registrants and work with the European Union and as best we can to try to work with growers and grower organizations in Europe who think that they’re going to be hurt badly with this decision and so I don’t any allusions that we’re going to prevail in this argument but I think at this moment at least there is some interest by a lot of people in trying to keep pushing the European Union to find a better solution than just moving it to basically a no use situation.

Of course this is the time of year that producers take a hard look at the last year and make some important decisions concerning how they are going to handle the next growing season.

WILLETT: Just relying on chemical control is going to be a really bad idea because you are going to get resistance and you’re going to continue to have problems and since there are so few chemicals we can use for control of post harvest diseases, we don’t want to put that kind of pressure on those products.

Willett suggests that if you do have any questions concerning any of these products or issues to contact them and they will do their best to answer them.

That’s today’s Fruit Grower Report. I’m Greg Martin on the Ag Information Network.