PHNOM PENH, March 28 (Xinhua) -- Cambodia has banned the import of fungicide Tricyclazole after the European Commission required the country's milled rice industry to eradicate the use of the pesticide by June.
"All companies trading agricultural chemicals must stop importing the agricultural chemicals that contain Tricyclazole," said a directive signed by Agriculture Minister Veng Sakhon late Monday, adding all distributions of fungicide Tricyclazole were prohibited.
"Using fungicide Tricyclazole on rice crops must be stopped because the chemical can leave pesticide waste in milled rice," the directive said.
The ban came after the European Commission last month gave Cambodian producers of white rice until June and fragrant rice until December to eliminate the use of fungicide Tricyclazole.
Milled rice containing more than 0.01 milligram of the chemical per kilogram of the grain will be banned from importing to the European Union.
EU is the Cambodia's largest market for milled rice. According to government figures, the Southeast Asian nation exported 341,066 tons of milled rice to EU, accounting for 63 percent of the total milled rice export in 2016.
