Dow AgroSciences announced that Japan has established maximum residue levels (MRLs) for spinetoram, the active ingredient in Delegate WG and Radiant SC insecticides. The new MRLs open up a new export market for U.S.-grown fruits, vegetables and citrus.

“Fruit and vegetable producers can now treat their crops with Delegate and Radiant, and then export those crops to Japan,” says Hub Miller, portfolio marketing leader for Dow AgroSciences. “The establishment of these MRLs will enable our customers to supply food to the third-largest importer of agricultural products in the world.”

MRLs are a country’s official recognition of the limits of crop protection product residues allowed on food. The United States is the leading agricultural supplier to Japan, which has historically imported approximately 60 percent of its food each year.

“Growers can now switch to Delegate and Radiant with full confidence that the MRLs are in place,” Miller says.

In addition to the MRLs from Japan, new MRLs have been established in Taiwan, the sixth-largest export destination for agricultural products produced in the United States. Overall, agricultural and food products from the United States account for more than 30 percent of Taiwan’s agricultural import demand.

Delegate and Radiant are two prominent products that help control damaging pests in the fruit and vegetable industries. They are registered under the Reduced Risk Pesticide Initiative by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and have received the Presidential Green Chemistry Challenge Award. The unique Group 5 chemistry of both Delegate and Radiant also supplies producers with an alternative mode of action that is vital to resistance management.

Visit www.DelegateInsecticide.com or www.RadiantInsecticide.com to learn more about the new MRLs and how Delegate and Radiant can help yield a profitable crop. For additional information on MRLs or Integrated Pest Management in fruit and vegetable production, go to www.GrowingProduce.com or www.mrldatabase.com.