Rodenticide products with the new stewardship labels starting to appear

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Anticoagulant rodenticide products carrying the new, legally-binding stewardship labels are starting to appear on distributors’ shelves. Thinking this was an easy task, Pest set-out to discover which ‘new’ products were already in stock.
Having contacted virtually all the rodenticide manufacturers the response to our request for information as to what was where was very patchy. So the request was then made to several of the distributors. Surely they would know?

In summary, the situation appears to be very fluid and changes almost daily. Users are encouraged to check the position regarding any rodenticide product they wish to buy with their distributor directly.

Users don’t need to panic though, as the key dates are:

  • 30 September 2016 is the last day that old pre-stewardship label stocks can be sold;
  • 31 March 2017 is the last day that users can use pre-stewardship labelled products.
Good result on paperwork requirements
However, the good news is that distributors are reporting that users seem to have taken to heart the requirement to complete the declaration documents, produced by the Campaign for Responsible Rodenticide Use (CRRU) Point of Sale workgroup.

Distributors have also worked hard on this, have systems in place, and are holding completed certificated user’s point of sale declarations for the majority of their customers.

If you are a rodenticide user and have not yet completed these documents, do so now. Contact your distributor today.

Point of sale declaration   
Distributors’ position
Speaking on behalf of Killgerm, managing director Rupert Broome explained: “The changeover to stewardship labelled rodenticides is a very fluid process, with some manufacturers bringing forward stewardship labelled products quickly, and others taking longer. None of this is surprising, and we should not lose sight of the fact that a six month changeover window is not a particularly long time based on the extended supply chains of some manufacturers.

“Nevertheless, stewardship labelled products are now being sold in the UK by Killgerm under the terms of the new CRRU UK Point of Sale checks on Proof of Competence, and the industry remains on course for all the relevant professional use rodenticides to be fully stewardship compliant by the end of September 2016,” concludes Rupert.

The response from Edialux echoed this, saying: “With the new stewardship coming into action we have worked closely with our customers to ensure that the transition is as easy as possible for them. Our customer service team has been contacting our customers with the help of our IT system in order to get certification and ensure that all of our customers are fully up to date with the new stewardship regime.”

This is also the case at Ienv who said: “We have been at the forefront of preparations in readiness for the stewardship scheme. All our customers have been contacted and most have filled in our request forms and supplied details of their training. We take stewardship very seriously and hope that this is replicated throughout the pest control industry as well as the other industries who supply rodenticides.”

Charles Phillips, divisional director at Barrettine EH said: “We are well underway with the transition into the new label conditions with the 30 September deadline rapidly approaching. For customers who do not yet meet these certification requirements we would urge professionals to obtain training certification to comply with these requirements as soon as possible.”

Reponse from the manufacturers
The manufacturers who responded to our enquiries revealed the following:

Bayer. Bayer says it is the first company to amend all labels for their entire range of second generation rodenticide products. The four products that make up the Bayer Rodilon range will all come to the market during July.

PelGar. New labels are being phased in from the start of July. As well as the new stewardship conditions these will also include the broader use pattern which has been granted for the majority of PelGar’s difenacoum and bromadiolone formulations and will read as follows: ‘For use in and around buildings, open areas, waste dumps and sewers.’

Lodi. Newly labelled product for all our rodenticides will be leaving our stores from next week onwards. There will still be residual stock of old labelled product sold throughout July depending on our client’s wishes. However in August (date still to be agreed) we will only be selling newly labelled product.

BASF. The labels of all Storm products have been changed and stock is either in place, or en route. By the end of July they will all be in place.

Bell. Products with the new stewardship labels are currently in transit from the USA so are not yet on distributors’ shelves.

Syngenta. Products with the new labels are being produced at the moment and will all be ready before the September deadline.

Rentokil. The company says it is in the process of changing over to the stewardship labels at the moment and all deadlines will be met.


And what of the agricultural market?
Maybe not perfect, the change-over for professional pest controllers is relatively straight forward with only a relatively small number of points of distribution.

By comparison the agricultural market is far more complex and diverse. Stocks of product with old labels may still be in evidence as the deadline date approaches – maybe scope for some bargain basement deals?

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