EU-based companies continue to export thousands of tonnes of banned pesticides to Kenya and other countries, even though the food it helps produce is often then exported back to the EU, new research has confirmed.

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EU-based companies continue to export thousands of tonnes of banned pesticides to Kenya and other countries, even though the food it helps produce is often exported back to the EU, new research has confirmed.

A report published on Thursday (6 November) by Swedwatch, a Swedish NGO, and the Kenya Organic Agriculture Network (Koan) found that over 120,000 tonnes of pesticides that are banned in the EU are sold abroad.

It documents the effects of these pesticides, many of which contain known carcinogens, on Kenyan farm workers and communities, including breathing problems, fatal poisonings and rising cancer rates in agricultural regions.

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    It documents the effects of these pesticides, many of which contain known carcinogens, on Kenyan farm workers and communities, including breathing problems, fatal poisonings and rising cancer rates in agricultural regions.

    “The influx of pesticides banned in the EU directly undermines the health of Kenyans, damages the environment, and exposes a critical failure in regulatory bodies that should be protecting public safety,” said Eustace Gacanja, chief executive officer at Koan.

    “If the European Union and Britain are allowing cancer-causing pesticides to be manufactured in their own countries, exclusively to be exported to African countries, that’s not an act of good faith,” Gladys Boss Shollei, the deputy speaker of Kenya’s National Assembly, told MEPs during a joint meeting between the European parliament and African lawmakers back in 2023.