Brazil state impounds agchems on use breaches

The Brazilian Minas Gerais state agricultural inspection service, the IMA, impounded some 188,631 kg and 21,199 litres of pesticides following inspections in the state last year. It also issued 92 violation notices arising from irregularities in the sale and use of pesticides. The IMA carried out over 7,000 inspections making Minas Gerais Brazil’s foremost inspector state with over a quarter (27%) of all such national inspections. The service inspected 3,371 commercial establishments selling pesticides and 4,030 farms covering use, and also inspected pesticide container storage facilities to determine whether agronomic receipts were issued at points of sale and empty containers were returned. The dominance came from a state that ranks sixth in agrochemical sales. Copies of all violation notifications are sent to the public prosecutor’s office. The state residue monitoring programme found that 95% of analysed samples of foodstuffs passed inspection guidelines.