A serious fire in a plant manufacturing Bayer CropScience’s insecticidal seed treatment, clothianidin, is hoped not to substantially impact supplies into the UK next autumn, the firm has announced.

The fire on 8 October 2012 at the Dormagen plant in Germany resulted in the production of clothianidin active ingredient being temporarily halted. There were no serious injuries to workers, nor any environmental damage or off-site impacts, and production re-started in December.

The temporary halt in production did reduce the total amount of clothianidin that would have been normally produced in that period, but much of the lost production was intended for spring plantings, particularly for the North American market, said Peter Stacey, SeedGrowth campaign manager in the UK.

“We will not know the full impact on the UK market until full production resumes, but we believe that we will be able to supply the substantial part of UK requirements.

“Once we have a better idea of total availability, probably in late spring, we will brief the UK market.”

Note: clothianidin is the insecticide used in Poncho seed dressing on Maize and Poncho Beta on sugar beet and fodder beet.