Suggested:
Baking powder loses its EU classification as a plant protection base substance in favor of the industrial plant protection product Natrisan. It has almost the same content, but costs six times as much.
Winegrowers in Europe have long relied on baking soda—or, more precisely, sodium hydrogen carbonate—to combat powdery mildew. The substance is inexpensive, environmentally harmless, easy to handle, and effective. Within the EU, it is approved as a “basic substance.”
SWR 1 Baden‑Württemberg now reports that the local company Biofa has obtained authorization for a crop‑protection product made almost entirely of baking soda for use in Germany and Austria. Because a substance cannot simultaneously be a basic substance and a registered pesticide, baking soda will lose its basic‑substance status in favor of the industrial product.
Winegrowers in disbelief
Overnight, winegrowers will lose the right to use ordinary baking soda purchased from bakery suppliers or agricultural retailers. Instead, they must buy an expensive crop‑protection product through agricultural distributors. The association “Land schafft Verbindung Rheinland‑Pfalz” expects prices to rise six‑fold.
One grower told SWR that the change will cost his operation an extra €5,000. Others call the EU decision “very annoying” and “incomprehensible.”
Boycott threats against Biofa
Biofa, based in Münsingen, Baden‑Württemberg, secured authorization for the pesticide containing the active ingredient hydrogen carbonate. According to SWR 1, the product is marketed under the name “Natrisan.”
After protests and boycott threats, Biofa posted a three‑page statement on its website rejecting accusations of profiteering. Among other points, the company insists it has no intention of harming winegrowers financially.
Instead, Biofa feels it has been treated unfairly—so says the managing director in an interview with SWR—by the European Commission. In the company’s view, the Commission originally approved baking soda as a basic substance only by unlawfully drawing on Biofa’s previous study data without compensating the firm.
The Commission itself later asked Biofa to apply for authorization of sodium hydrogen carbonate as a pesticide.
Economic interests are, of course, involved
When asked by SWR 1, the German Winegrowers’ Association commented that any company developing a pesticide naturally aims to earn a profit from it. That this may come at the expense of member operations is an unfortunate possibility enabled by the intersection of national and EU law.
For now, nothing is likely to change. All parties recognize that the decision is legally unassailable. The German Winegrowers’ Association speaks of a “legally clear situation.” Based on its current analysis, there is regrettably no short‑term political solution to this dilemma.
