Published on 01/07/2020
Chlorpyrifos is sold in New Zealand primarily under the trade name Lorsban 50EC and includes Lorsban 750 WG and the recently discontinued Cobalt Advanced. Managing director ANZ, Rob Kaan, says this decision comes as the global market continues to significantly decline for broad spectrum organophosphate pesticides (such as chlorpyrifos) as growers move towards more sustainable and targeted insecticide products.
“This is a strategic business decision based on Corteva’ s commitment to constantly review our portfolio of available products and to make sure we are supporting our customers by creating value for their businesses. Chlorpyrifos has been and will continue to be a valuable insect control tool to growers, but it just doesn’t fit into our future business portfolio”.
While there is no direct replacement for chlorpyrifos in all markets, the lean towards more sustainable chemistry is a demonstration of where the business focus lies and the direction Corteva is committed to employing the world over, Kaan says.
“We have some amazing products in both our current portfolio and our pipe-line, featuring new targeted chemistries with great ecological and environmental profiles. In NZ, we have a number of established insecticides with excellent profiles suchas Sparta, Transform with Isoclast active, Prodigy and Entrust SC, our BioGro certified organic product."
"Chlorpyrifos has served a unique and vital role in global agriculture since 1955. We will manage our existing inventories of chlorpyrifos products through 2020 to meet our customers immediate demand and allow them to transition to other chlorpyrifos suppliers and/or towards more sustainable targeted insecticide products successfully,” he says. “When farmers win, everyone wins, and Corteva is committed to investing in the products our customers want and need."