Syngenta marketing manager John Yates has been working on the project, putting together case studies specific to New Zealand
where generic products claiming to be equivalent to Syngenta products fail to deliver.
"We are not knocking all generic products and companies, but those who blatantly copy and paste our label then pass it off as
'a generic competitor to Karate' for example, with poor in-field technical support and weak product stewardship," he says
"We recently purchased a generic copy of Karate sold in a one litre bottle, but were unable to ship it to Europe for testing because the bottle was so deformed the dangerous goods transport company said it was not safe to send.
"We tried to swap it with the reseller, but all the other one litre bottles had the same problem. The product was less than two years old, so how they managed to get this registered I don’t know and the store manager was quite surprised."
Yates says Syngenta now also collects and tests generic formulations of axozystrobin from around the world to see how these compare with the quality of Amistar.
Of the 107 generic copies of Amistar tested by Syngenta between 2010 and 2013, 77 per cent were of inferior quality and in some cases illegal. Differences included particle size, impurity levels, and adjuvants while 48 per cent had no built-in anti-freeze, he says.
This and other case studies are detailed in a new Syngenta publication called Syngenta products and generic formulations in New Zealand which is being sent to resellers and growers to encourage them to ask questions before buying a generic and assuming it’s the same as the branded product.
"Does it have any efficacy or crop safety data? Is the product stable in storage? Is there any technical back-up if something
goes wrong?
"We are not naming specific generic products or companies, but let’s just say they usually prefer not to belong to AGCARM, who
represent more than 30 manufacturers and distributors of crop protection and animal health products and who are committed to
safety, innovation and product stewardship."
For more details phone John Yates 09 306 1504.