Official figures about the use of pesticides in the Netherlands do not reflect official industry sales totals, environmental campaign group Greenpeace says on Tuesday.

For example, the sale of the herbicide glyphosate, which is used to make Monsanto’s Roundup, is five times as high as the official usage figures published by the national statistics office CBS, Greenpeace says.

Glyphosate causes problems with drinking water and has been labelled potentially carcinogenic by the World Health Organisation.

Bees

Sales of the insecticide imidacloprid, which is thought to be contributing to the decline of honey bee colonies, are twice that of the official usage, the secret figures quoted by Greenpeace show.

In addition, 1,500 tonnes of the fungicide metam natrium was sold in the Netherlands in 2013, even though it does not appear in the CBS figures at all, Greenpeace says.

The figures quoted by Greenpeace only include sales through the pesticides manufacturers’ association NEFYTO from 2010 to 2013  and do not include sales made through other channels.

‘This means the actual gap between usage and sales is even wider,’ Greenpeace said.

Parliament

The organisation has called on the government to come clean about the sale of pesticides in the Netherlands and their use. It points out that the environment ministry always refers to the CBS usage figures when discussing the use of chemicals in farming.

Parliament is due to discuss the use of pesticides later this week.

There will also be a special hearing next week over an application by Greenpeace to get more information about the sale of pesticides. The economic affairs ministry last year rejected the organisation’s request for details using freedom of information legislation.