Every year tens of thousands of tonnes of pesticides that European farmers are no longer allowed to use leave EU ports for Africa, Asia and Latin America. In 2024 the European Union notified exports of 122,000 tonnes of substances banned at home, a 50% jump from 81,000 tonnes in 2018.
Sharp rise in banned chemical exports
The figures come from an analysis by Swiss-based non-governmental organisation Public Eye and the investigative unit of Greenpeace, Unearthed. The two organisations reviewed hundreds of export notifications that companies must file under international rules.
Kenya has emerged as one of the main destinations in Africa. Data seen by this newsroom shows that Kenyan importers received 473,000kg of active ingredients from European suppliers last year, including at least three substances already restricted or under review locally.
Among the chemicals shipped were mancozeb, a fungicide banned in the EU in 2020 for reproductive toxicity and endocrine disruption, glufosinate, outlawed in Europe in 2018, and the soil fumigant 1,3-dichloropropene, classified by the United States as a probable human carcinogen and prohibited in the EU since 2007. More than 20,000 tonnes of 1,3-dichloropropene alone were notified for export worldwide in 2024.
The legal loophole that keeps factories running
The European Union bans pesticides for agricultural use inside its borders but allows manufacturers to keep producing them for export. Companies only have to follow the Prior Informed Consent procedure under the Rotterdam Convention, a system that requires them to notify the importing country.
“It is a mechanical effect,” said Laurent Gaberell, agriculture expert at Public Eye. “Every time the EU tightens its domestic rules, which has happened dozens of times since 2018, the volume of declared banned pesticides automatically rises.”
Three-quarters of these exports now go to low- and middle-income countries where regulatory systems are weaker and protective equipment is often unavailable.
United Nations agencies warn that highly hazardous pesticides present the greatest dangers in such settings. A 2020 study found that half the pesticides used on Kenyan farms were already prohibited in Europe, and only one in six farmers wore proper protective gear.
Kenya defends the imports
Fredrick Muchiri, chief executive officer of the Pest Control Products Board (PCPB), told this newsroom the imports are lawful and safe.
“The EU regulates based on hazard – the inherent toxicity of a substance – while Kenya assesses risk, which combines hazard with actual exposure,” he said. “A product can be carcinogenic in theory, but if the farmer wears gloves, boots and a mask, the risk becomes negligible.”
Mr Muchiri stressed that the EU never banned production, only domestic use. “They are free to manufacture for export. We are free to decide whether we want to buy,” he added.
What farmers actually experience
In the rolling potato fields of Nyandarua County, Esther Wanjiru has been spraying Dithane, a mancozeb-based fungicide, for more than 10 years. “It is what the agrovet sells us. They say it is the strongest against blight. Nobody ever told us it was banned in Europe,” the 52-year-old mother of four said as she filled her knapsack sprayer without gloves.
Two hours’ drive away in Nakuru County, tomato grower Joseph Kamau uses imidacloprid-based Thunder three times a week. “Sometimes the wind blows the spray back on my face. My eyes burn and I get headaches for days, but if I don’t spray I lose the whole crop,” the 46-year-old father of five said.
Mary Njeri, who grows French beans in Kirinyaga County, developed persistent skin rashes after handling mancozeb without protection. “The agrovet man said just wash with soap. He never gave us masks or overalls. We thought it was normal,” the 38-year-old said.
Paul Mwirigi, a vegetable farmer in Meru County, lost two fingers when a pesticide container exploded while he was mixing chemicals barefoot. “We were told these are the best chemicals from Europe. Now I learn they don’t even use them there,” he said.
In Naivasha, flower farm worker Rose Wangui has suffered two miscarriages in three years. “Many women here have the same problem. We spray every day and the doctor says it might be the chemicals, but the farm says there is no proof,” she said.
Critics dismiss the official line
Fredrick Otieno, programme officer at the Centre for Environment Justice and Development in Nairobi, said the risk-based argument does not reflect reality on the ground.
“Farmers spray with backpack sprayers, often barefoot, sometimes mixing pesticides in empty water bottles. Telling them the risk is negligible because they could wear protective equipment they do not own is absurd,” he said.
Mr Otieno said 38% of active ingredients registered in Kenya remain banned in the EU and accused the government of failing to invest in safer pest-management methods.
In 2022 the Africa Centre for Corrective and Preventive Action filed a court petition demanding the withdrawal of dozens of hazardous pesticides from the Kenyan market. The case is still pending.
Europe remains top exporter
The European Union is the world’s largest pesticide exporter. In 2022 it shipped 714,000 tonnes worth €6.6 billion, of which 81,615 tonnes were substances no longer authorised for agricultural use inside the bloc.
France banned the export of domestically prohibited pesticides in 2020, followed by Belgium in 2023. Campaigners want the entire EU to follow.
“If Europe stopped exporting these chemicals tomorrow, their availability would collapse and countries like Kenya would be forced to move faster toward agroecological alternatives,” Mr Otieno argued.
Health risks mount
Systematic reviews have linked chronic exposure to neonicotinoids such as imidacloprid with congenital heart defects and neural tube defects in newborns. Mancozeb breaks down into ethylenethiourea, a metabolite associated with thyroid damage and developmental disorders.
Kenya’s Business Laws (Amendment) Act 2024 now prohibits the import of goods banned in their country of origin. Environmental lawyers say the law could block banned EU pesticides if enforced.
For now the containers keep arriving from Antwerp, Rotterdam and Hamburg, carrying chemicals European regulators judged too dangerous for their own fields but still profitable for someone else’s.
One European industry source, speaking on condition of anonymity, said: “If we did not sell them, China or India would. At least under the PIC system the importing country is warned.”
Critics say a warning means little when the people doing the spraying cannot read the label and rivers downstream are already carrying the poison to the sea.
