09/20/07 Malathion could jeopardize some wheat exports

Farm and Ranch September 20, 2007 A mistake by a manufacturer of malathion could jeopardize some U.S. and Pacific Northwest wheat exports. That's what Washington Grain Alliance CEO Tom Mick told the Washington Wheat Commission meeting last week. Mick says submission of erroneous data to Codex, a group which sets international standards, led the organization to lower the tolerance of malathion residue in stored grain from eight parts per million to point-five parts per million. The U.S., European Union and Russia have stayed with the eight parts per million standard but Taiwan and South Korea have adopted the new lower residue level. Mick: "And our exporters say they can't meet that requirement so we could be in jeopardy of losing those markets unless we resolve this issue. Everyone is working hard on a national level to address it. They have found malathion residue on soft white wheat shipments I am sorry to say." Even though use of malathion on stored grain may be authorized on the label Mick says; Mick: "We need to get the word out to all farmers who have stored grain to really think twice about using this product. There are others out there they can use like Storicide. And we need to get to the chemical companies to think twice about selling this product because it could jeopardize future exports." I'm Bob Hoff and that's the Northwest Farm and Ranch Report on the Northwest Ag Information Network.