Singapore

Authorities in Singapore have said that they are satisfied with efforts by Malaysian vegetable growers to cut down on the use of pesticides. Quoting Singapore's Primary Production Department ( ppd ), the Malaysian Vegetable Growers Association president Liew Chow said the quality of Malaysian vegetables had improved considerably over the past one month. The department had rejected vegetable consignments in the previous months due to high residue of pesticides.

Liew said the association, which recently met officials from the ppd , said that it was satisfied with the results of tests on vegetables as they were found to have been sprayed with minimal quantities of pesticide.

According to ppd statistics for the period of May 15 and June 30, the failure rates of coriander, sweet potato leaf and French beans were 35 per cent, 16 per cent and 37 per cent respectively. However, the department recorded zero percentage failure on coriander and sweet potato leaf and 12 per cent on French beans between July 1 and 8, and the overall failure rate for all 22 types of vegetable similarly fell from 10 per cent to 6 per cent.

"We have also agreed to work closely with the ppd to reduce pesticide contamination in vegetables to meet Singapore's requirements. The department will send us weekly reports on pesticide violations by Malaysian vegetable consignments to assist farmers in monitoring the quality of the produce," Chow said.

He added that the association had pledged to ensure their produce would continue to meet Singapore's standard. He said the farmers too did not want to harm consumers by using excessive pesticides.

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