Written by: nic davies
2022
At Safaa, as part of our certification with ISO Environmental Management System, we are always assessing the viability of all pesticides used. As part of that annual process, we were able to introduce Syngenta’s Aretor, a new non-neonicotinoid pesticide for the control of red palm weevil.
Once the approval number was made available we double-checked its validity with the SASO who are the umbrella agency here, that indeed it had passed all the required processes for registration in KSA.
Red palm weevil is native to the Indian subcontinent which first arrived on the Arabian peninsula around the early 1980s and has decimated millions of Date Palms in the region. Control of this pest can now be undertaken by injecting the product into 6 locations of the palm, rather than covering the outside and exposing it to the elements. This new method will be used across the Arabian peninsula due to the lower toxicity of Aretor, efficiency and targeted nature of the application, coupled with the much-reduced environmental impact and exposure to the operator.