Japanese firm under fire for distributing banned German pesticide in SA

Farmworkers not given any protective gear

- By Tshwarelo eseng Mogakane

A Japanese-owned agrochemical company operating in South Africa is under growing pressure to explain its role in distributing a dangerous German-made pesticide banned across the European Union.

Philagro South Africa, based in Somerset West in Western Cape, is a wholly owned subsidiary of Japan’s Sumitomo Chemical Company. The company distributes Dormex, a pesticide manufactured by German giant Alzchem.

The product contains cyanamide, a toxic substance whose agricultural use was outlawed in Europe in 2008 due to its severe health risks - including organ damage, fertility harm and cancer.

Despite the ban, Dormex continues to be sprayed across South African vineyards and fruit farms, where hundreds of women workers claim they are exposed to it without protective equipment or medical support.

"This is corporate recklessness masquerading as agricultural progress," said Colette Solomon, director of the Women on Farms Project (WFP), a rights organisation that has spent years investigating the impact of toxic agrochemicals on South Africa’s farm labourers.