A Japanese-owned agrochemical company operating in South Africa is under growing pressure to explain its role in distributing a dangerous German-made pesticide banned across the European Union.
Philagro South Africa, based in Somerset West in Western Cape, is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Japan’s Sumitomo Chemical Company. The company distributes Dormex, a pesticide manufactured by German giant Alzchem. The product contains cyanamide, a toxic substance whose agricultural use was outlawed in Europe in 2008 due to its severe health risks – including organ damage, fertility harm and cancer.
Despite the ban, Dormex continues to be sprayed across South African vineyards and fruit farms, where hundreds of women workers claim they are exposed to it without protective equipment or medical support.
“This is corporate recklessness masquerading as agricultural progress,” said Colette Solomon, director of the Women on Farms Project (WFP), a rights organisation that has spent years investigating the impact of toxic agrochemicals on South Africa’s farm labourers.
The Global Classification System for Chemical Safety flags cyanamide as toxic by ingestion and skin contact, corrosive to eyes and skin, and a suspected carcinogen. A 2010 report by the European Food and Safety Authority found that even with full protective gear, worker exposure to cyanamide exceeded safety thresholds by 6 400%.
In South Africa, activists say workers are often not informed of the risks and are expected to return to the fields shortly after spraying. According to a WFP survey published earlier this year and presented at a pesticide tribunal, 63-year-old Dina Ndleleni from De Doorns collapsed in the vineyards in July 2022.
“I was in the vineyards [at a local farm] when I was exposed. The sprayer was on a tractor, about 15 metres away from us… spraying Dormex. As we were working, my throat began to itch. Then my throat began to burn. It felt like I could not get any oxygen into my lungs.”
Ndleleni was rushed to Worcester Hospital and later diagnosed with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease.
“Before, I was healthy. Now, I get tired after a few steps.” She told researchers she had worked for 53 years on farms and was never given protective gear. “They told us, ‘Oh man, we’re just spraying water.’”
On Tuesday, WFP and dozens of farmworkers marched to Philagro’s Somerset West offices to deliver a formal memorandum addressed to the managing director, Schalk Reynolds, and Alzchem CEO Andreas Niedermaier. In the memo, the workers accuse both companies of “toxic double standards” and demand that all exports of cyanamide to South Africa and other developing nations cease immediately.
The protest formed part of a campaign exposing what WFP describes as the export of banned chemicals from Europe to the global South, despite the health risks. A 2019 study found that 67 pesticides banned in the EU are still used in South Africa. One of the most devastating testimonies in WFP’s report came from Mekie Piet, whose husband, Solomon died in 2021 after nine years of working as a pesticide sprayer in Rawsonville.
“I told him, ‘It’s the pesticide that is making you sick.’ But he didn’t believe me,” she said. “His stomach was yellow fat, full of holes. It looked like something had eaten it away.” Following his death, the family was evicted from their home.
“We lost our father, our breadwinner, our home,” Piet said. The memorandum gives Alzchem and Philagro until June 30, 2025, to respond formally. Activists say if the companies fail to act, they will escalate the matter through global networks including PAN Germany, Inkota and the Association of Ethical Stakeholders.
“This is not just a South African issue,” said Solomon. “It’s a global injustice where multinational corporations hide behind weak regulations in poor countries to sell products they wouldn’t dare use at home.”
Philagro managing director Schalk Reynolds said: “We have received the memorandum regarding Hydrogen Cyanimide from Women on Farms Project on behalf of AzChem and we are currently analysing the matter and will manifest ourselves in due course and through the appropriate channels.”
