BRITAIN exported 8,500 tonnes of banned pesticides in 2023, an investigation revealed today.

Greenpeace’s investigative unit, Unearthed, and the NGO Public Eye discovered that the volume of neonicotinoid thiamethoxam, a toxic insecticide that destroys bees’ nervous systems, was so large that it could cover the whole of England.

The weedkiller diquat accounted for 60 per cent of the total exports.

More than half of this went to Brazil and has been linked to a number of poisonings.

Valdemar Postanovicz, a smallholder farmer from southern Brazil, accidentally absorbed a diquat-based herbicide when working in the fields. 

He said: “All the right side of my body was paralysed. I couldn’t feel my foot and my hand. My mouth twisted to the right.”

He added: “It was only one time in my life, but I felt so sick that I never used it again.”

The investigation found that almost all pesticides were shipped by the British subsidiary of Syngenta, which continues to produce banned chemicals at a plant in Huddersfield.

Greenpeace UK’s chief scientist Doug Parr said: “Talk about double standards. The UK has, quite rightly, banned the use of these toxic pesticides due to the dangers they pose to both human health and wildlife. 

“Why then do we think it’s OK to give pesticides giants, like Syngenta, carte blanche to dump this poison on countries with weaker regulations, knowing full well the harm it’s causing? 

“The government must stop this hypocrisy by following in the footsteps of leading European countries and banning production and export of all pesticides that are banned for use on Britain’s farms and fields.”

Farmers in England have repeatedly been granted “emergency” authorisation to use banned neonicotinoids, which are highly harmful to wildlife and human health.

More than 1.6 million people so far have signed a Greenpeace petition calling on Labour to stop these emergency authorisations and enforce a total ban.