A fire at a German Bayer factory will not dent supplies of insecticides next autumn, the firm has claimed.

The blaze, which ripped through the Dormagen plant on 8 October last year, halted production at the factory until December sparking fears of a possible shortage of the neonicotinoid clothianidin.

However Bayer’s seed growth campaign manager, Peter Stacey, moved to ease worries and said he is confident the UK will not face any loss of supplies.

“We will not know the full impact on the UK market until full production resumes, but we believe that we will be able to supply the substantial part of UK requirements.

“Once we have a better idea of total availability, probably in late spring, we will brief the UK market,” he said.

According to Mr Stacey, the temporary halt in production did reduce the total amount of clothianidin that would have been normally produced, but much of the lost production was intended for spring plantings, particularly for North America.

The active ingredient clothianidin is found in Bayer products such as Deter and Modesto (beta-cyfluthrin and clothianidin).

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