Ethylene by Restrain: The natural replacement to CIPC

A huge gap has formed in the potato storage sprout suppression market after EU has banned Chlorpropham (CIPC) - the herbicide and sprout suppressant. Growers are urgently looking for alternatives for their potato crops. Restrain, the residue free, ethylene gas company is ready to help.

Realizing of the non-renewal of CIPC, Restrain lead by Global Sales Director Dirk Garos, made significant investments in the business. It made significant investments in the business, enabling the company to increase its manufacturing capacity at its production facility in The Netherlands and therefore ensuring that it has the capacity needed to fill the gap left by CIPC.

Company’s generators have been used for potato storage for over 14 year and are fitted with sensors that maintain a stable, low level of ethylene that is vital for the safe storage of potatoes. The generators have large 20 liters fuel capacity, so daily filling is not required unlike other catalytic generators and Restrain generators use the start-up mechanism that ensures the best possible outcome when storing potatoes.

Garos commented: “Through our determination to create such class product we completely redesigned our machines, taking the manufacturing in house to improve machine quality and investing heavily in the development of our sensor technology.  This means our new B100 and B200 generators require limited annual maintenance and are fully calibrated before leaving our site, making them ready to use straight away”.

Following a series of successful variety trials, technology has recently been implemented by the potato-processing sector. The sector, which has traditionally used CIPC and other storage chemicals, has seen a trend towards more sustainable, chemical free solutions, so the company meets these requirements and just at the right time.

Garos says, “Seeing that the processing sector might need alternative solutions to CIPC, we invested in multiple processing variety trials to ensure that we have robust data for processing customers.  Our results show that fry colors are preserved, there is no need for a delay between storage and processing and the potatoes are completely residue free”.

Importantly Restrain is priced in line with CIPC, making it one of the most cost-effective alternatives available. In addition to this, customers do not need to pay for the machines themselves, which are supplied free of charge, with customers only paying a fee on a per ton basis for the crops they are storing.

The company has also invested heavily in ensuring regulatory approval of its ethylene product for use on potatoes for table, processing and seed, enabling customers to use Restrain with confidence.

Restrain’s system is used by more than 1000 growers across 38 countries worldwide. In sectors including potato and onion storage, tomato, bell pepper and banana ripening, with full regulatory approval.

For specific advice on ethylene usage visit www.restrain.eu.com