Wine with leftovers and banned pesticides was released and consumed in Cyprus.
According to the newspaper "Politis", the existence of pesticides in the wines was in the knowledge of the competent services, which, however, chose to hide the fact so that the local wine industry would not be affected.
In particular, in the 2015 wine-harvesting wines -mainly in the xinisteri variety- the presence of the banned substance oxadixyl was detected, after chemical analyzes and laboratory tests by both the State and private chemistry.
Oxadixyl is the active ingredient of a banned (since the late 1990s) systemic fungicide pesticide under the trade names Sandofan M8 and Sandofan C, which in the form of wet powder has been used in the past to treat the ashes of its fork, phytophthora, anthracnose and other diseases in vineyards.
In fact, according to the publication, this pesticide exists and is still used in the occupied territories. Sandofan quantities have been smuggled into the free zones in recent years and are being used by some farmers in violation of relevant legislation.
The use of this pesticide in the free areas and mainly in the province of Paphos occurred during the first months of 2015 in vineyards. The result was a large amount of grapes that were handed over to large wineries during the harvest period, leaving the banned substance oxadixyl as a residue, the report said.
According to "P", the existence of the pesticide was consciously silenced by the competent services with the argument that any publication would affect viticulture, the wine industry and wine exports.
A ministry official said in the same post: "This is a pesticide that has been used in the past and its use stopped on the eve of Cyprus' accession to the EU. In simpler terms, in the 1990s we drank it and suffered nothing." In wine, the 2015 harvest, in which oxadixyl was found in quantities three times the percentage allowed by European guidelines, is a drink that is not drunk on a daily basis and in most cases the amount consumed does not exceed 1 liter! And also this drink is not consumed by young children, who are clearly more vulnerable to such dangerous substances.
Finally, some quantities were bottled and marketed, a few bottled quantities were tacitly withdrawn, and several quantities remained (and remain) in storage tanks.
Source: CITIZEN
