Please find below some important information about Rescue, which is being withdrawn from the UK & Republic of Ireland market.

Rescue is currently approved for use in the UK and Ireland, however it will lose its approval for sale next year. The industry will then enter into a 12-month use-up period for end users.

The authorisation of Rescue for the UK and Republic of Ireland ends as follows:

• 30 June 2018 - Final sales and distribution of existing stocks
• 30 June 2019 - Completion of storage, use or disposal of existing stocks

This means that end-user customers have until 30 June 2018 to purchase and receive delivery of Rescue into their stores, and that the product must then be used by 30 June 2019.

The active ingredient in Rescue, pinoxaden, required re-registration to comply with EU Directives.  Syngenta decided not to support the re-registration of Rescue since it believed that an unrelated EU review of co-formulates (under Article 27) would have soon lead to the revocation of the current Rescue formulation, regardless of the re-registration process for the product.

Rescue passed all CRD (Chemical Regulations Directorate) risk assessments.  No safety or health issue has ever been reported with Rescue in the UK.  However, the current regulatory process does not assess risk – it now assesses the inherent hazard.  That means that even if Rescue represented no significant risk when used as directed, it is still likely to be classified as a hazard.

Syngenta is disappointed to be losing Rescue from the product portfolio and fully recognises the value and importance of the product to turf managers in the UK and Ireland.  Unfortunately the ever increasing regulatory hurdles left no option but to withdraw the existing product, and invest in a new formulation. 

Syngenta is currently developing a new formulation of Rescue to meet with these revised regulatory standards. It is hoped to have this new product on the market in 2020, pending successful registration. This planned timescale would leave only relatively short period from the end of Rescue use-up, in June 2019, to the potential launch of the new product.